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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next [Ravnica] Otherworldly Patron: The Obzedat



Giegue
2018-11-21, 10:55 PM
So
http://psychatog.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/orzhova1.jpg

You have made your pact with the feared, deathless leaders of the Ozhov guild: the Obzedat ghost council. As beings focused solely on their own power and wealth, the Obzedat are rare to share their power with those beneath them. However, when they do it is typically with one of their own family members, and always for a price. To enter into a pact with the Obzedat themselves is a great honor among the Orzhov, and a special rite reserved for only those of truly noble blood. In fact, a requirement for taking up a pact with the Obzedat is having a family member who themselves sits on the council. Often, a member of the Obzedat will make a pact with a family member whom they wish to be an eventual inductee to the council, and having this pact means having a direct line to to the Obzedat that few other Orzhov enjoy. Thus, the Warlocks who result from these pacts are the only spellcasters within the Orzhov who are able to raise souls as indentured spirits, a duty deemed too important to the livelihood of the guild to leave to anybody other than these honored few.

However, while a pact with the Obzedat is a great honor, it is also a great curse. The reason the Obzedat keeps their Warlocks in the family is not just elitism, but also self-interest. Those closest to the top of the guild are often the most ambitious, and this is doubly so for the children and descendants of those who sit on the ghost council. Thus, the Obzedat typically make their pacts with the most ambitious of their descendants, not only as a way to weaponize their ambition to their advantage, but also as a means of keeping them in check. While the power cannot be taken away once invested, the Obzedat use the fact that they are its source as leverage over their children and descendants, putting them into permanent debt to the Obzedat. Thus, while these Warlocks often receive the privileges that come with being among the elite of the Orzhov in life, if they move against the Obzedat they can "call in" this debpt to stripe them of titles, remove them from the guild, or if they wish have them killed and brought back as an indentured spirit. In the world of Ravnica, the most famous example of a Warlock of the Obzedat would be advokist and maze runner Teysa Karlov.

Patron Spells

The Obzedat lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a Warlock spell. The spells below are added to the Warlock spell list for you:

1st: Bless, Healing Word
2nd: Healing Spirit, Silence
3rd: Aura of Vitality, Revivify
4th: Death Ward, Aura of Life
5th: Antilife Shell, Raise Dead

Extort

The Orzhov always collect their debts, and as a favored servant of the Obzedat you learn how to exact your tithes in the life essence of your enemies. Starting at 1st level, as an action you can target a creature that is within 30 feet that you can see. That creature must make a Strength saving throw against your Warlock spell save DC. On a failed save, that creature takes damage 2d8+ your Charisma modifier necrotic damage. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage. On a failed save, the creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by the damage taken until it finishes a long rest, and you heal an equal number of hit points. (if applicable)

Any creature slain within 1 minute of failing their save against this attack rises as an uncontrolled indentured spirit when slain, which immediately turns hostile to all living creatures it encounters other than you, your allies, and any member of the orzhov guild. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can do so again. Starting at 5th level, you can use this feature twice per-short or long rest, and starting at 17th level, three times per-short or long rest.

Immortal Servitude

Starting at 6th level, your patron gives you the power to enslave the souls of the dead. You may force any indentured spirit you create from your Extort feature to serve you by expending a Warlock spell slot as a reaction when it rises. These indentured spirits remain under your control until you finish a long rest, at which point you may expend warlock spell slots to reassert control over them. You may reassert control over one indentured spirit for each expended slot, causing them to remain under your control until you finish your next long rest. (after which you may repeat this process to keep them controlled.) Starting at 11th level, you instead can reassert control over up to two indentured spirits for each expended slot.

Indentured spirits you control through this feature use your initiative and may be commanded to move freely; however, to have them take an action you must command them to do so with a bonus action. You may only control a number of indentured spirits raised by your Extort feature no higher than your Charisma modifier at one time. Any attempts to go over the limit releases an equal number of indentured spirits from your control. An indentured spirit that is released in this way immediately becomes hostile towards you and attacks. Additionally, indentured spirits controlled through this feature gain the following additional benefits as long as they remain under your control:

They add your Warlock level to their hit point maximums.
They gain the Pack Tactics trait.
They add your proficiency bonus to their weapon damage rolls.
Obzedat's Aid

Starting at 10th level, the Obzedat sponsor you for magical immortality and eventual transition into a spirit and member of the Obzedat, once qualified. You cease aging, and can no longer be magically aged. Once per-long rest, if you would die you can make a Charisma saving throw against a DC of 5 + the damage taken. On a sucssessful save, you immediately rise with 1 hit point instead. When you do this, you are treated as being under the effects of a Sanctuary spell cast at your Pact Magic slot level until the end of your next turn. This Sanctuary effect uses your Warlock spell save DC as its effective spell save DC.

Debt to the Deathless

At 14th level, you have proven yourself to the Obzedat, and thus are given permission to broker deals for them on their behalf. Once per-day, you are able to cast the Wish spell without expending a spell slot. To use it, someone else must agree to make a deal with you in exchange for taking on an amount of debt to the Obzedat determined by your GM (based on the nature of the deal being made). As always, if the person making the deal is not careful in their wording, you may twist it to do something that will benefit yourself and/or the Obzedat.

For example, an Azorius Senator contacts you and says "I wish for the guildless in my district to stop revolting!" You could twist this wish any number of ways because of how general it is, like having that senator lose their election to an Orzhov-bought opponent who makes good on their campaign promise to end the revolts. The Obzedat will inform you if they want you to deal with a particular individual. You may use this Wish on someone that the Obzedat have not instructed you to deal with, in which case you can choose to put them in debt to you instead of the Obzedat. However if you do this and the Obzedat do not approve of the wording of the Wish, it will fail. This Wish cannot be used on yourself or your allies, and can only be used to grant the wishes of those you bargain with.

NOTES

This subclass was made because I am going to play a Warlock with the Obzedat as their patron in a Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica game in the not too distant future and thought the undying patron was rather...undwhelming...mechanically. However, I have zero idea whether or not this is balanced, which is why I am posting it up before I playtest it. Any and all advice on balance is thus appreciated. Art is courtesy of WOC themselves.

Zhentarim
2019-11-08, 11:03 AM
So
http://psychatog.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/orzhova1.jpg

You have made your pact with the feared, deathless leaders of the Ozhov guild: the Obzedat ghost council. As beings focused solely on their own power and wealth, the Obzedat are rare to share their power with those beneath them. However, when they do it is typically with one of their own family members, and always for a price. To enter into a pact with the Obzedat themselves is a great honor among the Orzhov, and a special rite reserved for only those of truly noble blood. In fact, a requirement for taking up a pact with the Obzedat is having a family member who themselves sits on the council. Often, a member of the Obzedat will make a pact with a family member whom they wish to be an eventual inductee to the council, and having this pact means having a direct line to to the Obzedat that few other Orzhov enjoy. Thus, the Warlocks who result from these pacts are the only spellcasters within the Orzhov who are able to raise souls as indentured spirits, a duty deemed too important to the livelihood of the guild to leave to anybody other than these honored few.

However, while a pact with the Obzedat is a great honor, it is also a great curse. The reason the Obzedat keeps their Warlocks in the family is not just elitism, but also self-interest. Those closest to the top of the guild are often the most ambitious, and this is doubly so for the children and descendants of those who sit on the ghost council. Thus, the Obzedat typically make their pacts with the most ambitious of their descendants, not only as a way to weaponize their ambition to their advantage, but also as a means of keeping them in check. While the power cannot be taken away once invested, the Obzedat use the fact that they are its source as leverage over their children and descendants, putting them into permanent debt to the Obzedat. Thus, while these Warlocks often receive the privileges that come with being among the elite of the Orzhov in life, if they move against the Obzedat they can "call in" this debpt to stripe them of titles, remove them from the guild, or if they wish have them killed and brought back as an indentured spirit. In the world of Ravnica, the most famous example of a Warlock of the Obzedat would be advokist and maze runner Teysa Karlov.

Patron Spells

The Obzedat lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a Warlock spell. The spells below are added to the Warlock spell list for you:

1st: Bless, Healing Word
2nd: Healing Spirit, Silence
3rd: Aura of Vitality, Revivify
4th: Death Ward, Aura of Life
5th: Antilife Shell, Raise Dead

Extort

The Orzhov always collect their debts, and as a favored servant of the Obzedat you learn how to exact your tithes in the life essence of your enemies. Starting at 1st level, as an action you can target a creature that is within 30 feet that you can see. That creature must make a Strength saving throw against your Warlock spell save DC. On a failed save, that creature takes damage 2d8+ your Charisma modifier necrotic damage. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage. On a failed save, the creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by the damage taken until it finishes a long rest, and you heal an equal number of hit points. (if applicable)

Any creature slain within 1 minute of failing their save against this attack rises as an uncontrolled indentured spirit when slain, which immediately turns hostile to all living creatures it encounters other than you, your allies, and any member of the orzhov guild. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can do so again. Starting at 5th level, you can use this feature twice per-short or long rest, and starting at 17th level, three times per-short or long rest.

Immortal Servitude

Starting at 6th level, your patron gives you the power to enslave the souls of the dead. You may force any indentured spirit you create from your Extort feature to serve you by expending a Warlock spell slot as a reaction when it rises. These indentured spirits remain under your control until you finish a long rest, at which point you may expend warlock spell slots to reassert control over them. You may reassert control over one indentured spirit for each expended slot, causing them to remain under your control until you finish your next long rest. (after which you may repeat this process to keep them controlled.) Starting at 11th level, you instead can reassert control over up to two indentured spirits for each expended slot.

Indentured spirits you control through this feature use your initiative and may be commanded to move freely; however, to have them take an action you must command them to do so with a bonus action. You may only control a number of indentured spirits raised by your Extort feature no higher than your Charisma modifier at one time. Any attempts to go over the limit releases an equal number of indentured spirits from your control. An indentured spirit that is released in this way immediately becomes hostile towards you and attacks. Additionally, indentured spirits controlled through this feature gain the following additional benefits as long as they remain under your control:

They add your Warlock level to their hit point maximums.
They gain the Pack Tactics trait.
They add your proficiency bonus to their weapon damage rolls.
Obzedat's Aid

Starting at 10th level, the Obzedat sponsor you for magical immortality and eventual transition into a spirit and member of the Obzedat, once qualified. You cease aging, and can no longer be magically aged. Once per-long rest, if you would die you can make a Charisma saving throw against a DC of 5 + the damage taken. On a sucssessful save, you immediately rise with 1 hit point instead. When you do this, you are treated as being under the effects of a Sanctuary spell cast at your Pact Magic slot level until the end of your next turn. This Sanctuary effect uses your Warlock spell save DC as its effective spell save DC.

Debt to the Deathless

At 14th level, you have proven yourself to the Obzedat, and thus are given permission to broker deals for them on their behalf. Once per-day, you are able to cast the Wish spell without expending a spell slot. To use it, someone else must agree to make a deal with you in exchange for taking on an amount of debt to the Obzedat determined by your GM (based on the nature of the deal being made). As always, if the person making the deal is not careful in their wording, you may twist it to do something that will benefit yourself and/or the Obzedat.

For example, an Azorius Senator contacts you and says "I wish for the guildless in my district to stop revolting!" You could twist this wish any number of ways because of how general it is, like having that senator lose their election to an Orzhov-bought opponent who makes good on their campaign promise to end the revolts. The Obzedat will inform you if they want you to deal with a particular individual. You may use this Wish on someone that the Obzedat have not instructed you to deal with, in which case you can choose to put them in debt to you instead of the Obzedat. However if you do this and the Obzedat do not approve of the wording of the Wish, it will fail. This Wish cannot be used on yourself or your allies, and can only be used to grant the wishes of those you bargain with.

NOTES

This subclass was made because I am going to play a Warlock with the Obzedat as their patron in a Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica game in the not too distant future and thought the undying patron was rather...undwhelming...mechanically. However, I have zero idea whether or not this is balanced, which is why I am posting it up before I playtest it. Any and all advice on balance is thus appreciated. Art is courtesy of WOC themselves.

This is exactly what I was looking for for my game. Thank you!