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Phhase
2021-07-22, 12:21 AM
You reach out to an entity, entreating of them aid, promising them your service. But the entity is not there. Perhaps they are dead, or mayhap imprisoned, but one fact is certain: they are gone. And their absence is like a bleeding, eyeless socket in reality. An absence so profound, it has power of its own. Power you gladly accept, in exchange for your obeyance of the final message left on the answering machine: Help.


Otherworldly Patron:

The Absence

Expanded Spell List

The Abscence 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.


Spell Level
Spells


1st
False Life, Dissonant Whispers


2nd
Blindness/Deafrness, Silence


3rd
Blinding Smite, Blink


4th
Death Ward, Confusion


5th
Greater Restoration, Geas




Emptiness
Beginning at 1st level, feelings and acts of expenditure and loss resonate with unnatural power within you, granting you strength. Each time you expend a Warlock spell slot, you gain 1 point of Emptiness in its place. When you restore a Warlock spell slot by any means, you lose any Emptiness it was granting.

For each point of Emptiness, you gain +1 to Intelligence and Wisdom saving throws.

Pact Boon: Pact of Loss
By taking this boon, you lose the function of either one of your limbs, or one of your eyes. You DM may decide how this impacts your character. In exchange, you may use the disabled part of yourself as an arcane focus, become immune to effects that sever limbs, and may reduce any damage you take by the number of Emptiness points you currently have.

Gnawing Void
At 6th level, making contact with your mind is a dangerous prospect, owing to the sheer nothing that surrounds it. Any time a creature contacts you telepathically, or forces you to make a mental saving throw, you can use your reaction to force them to make an Intelligence Saving Throw against your Spellpower + your Emptiness. On a failure, they are Stunned and take 2d10 + your Emptiness psychic damage and are Stunned until the end of your next turn. On a success, they take half damage and are not stunned.

You can use this feature a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency score.

Alone
At 10th level, you've successfully weaponized the churning existential fear the flows from your patron. As an action, you may expend a Warlock spell slot to force a creature you can see within 60 feet of you to make a Charisma Saving throw equal to your Spellpower + your Emptiness. On a failure, they become Invisible for 1 minute (Or until you stop Concentrating), and treat all others they would otherwise be able to see as Invisible and silent. You can still see them in this state. At the end of each turn spent in this state, they take 2d4 psychic damage from the devouring silence of an empty world. As an action, an afflicted creature may attempt make the save again, breaking free on a success. If a creature succeeds the initial save, they only take 2d4 psychic damage.

Unperson
At 14th level, you have bonded fully with The Abscene, inheriting the power of unbeing. As a reaction to taking damage when you have at least 1 point of Emptiness, you can instead take no damage from that source, instead reducing your maximum HP by 5 for every point of Emptiness you have, dealing the same amount as psychic damage to any creature within 30 feet, and ceasing to exist until the beginning of the next turn.

Still a work in progress, in addition to the invocations, but let me know what you think!

Kuulvheysoon
2021-07-23, 01:04 PM
Okay, this is unique. Haven't ever seen something quite like this before.

I do have a question about the 14th level feature, though. Let's say that you have a Warlock 14/Paladin 6. When you "cease to exist", what does that mean for ongoing spell effects and your aura? I could absolutely see the argument that Concentration is broken (like when you become unconscious) with the way that it's written (deep in the rules text, not the beginning intro fluff).

I might lean towards making Alone deal Cha modifier damage instead of 2d4 psychic for ease of use on the DM.

Phhase
2021-07-24, 12:44 AM
Okay, this is unique. Haven't ever seen something quite like this before.

I do have a question about the 14th level feature, though. Let's say that you have a Warlock 14/Paladin 6. When you "cease to exist", what does that mean for ongoing spell effects and your aura? I could absolutely see the argument that Concentration is broken (like when you become unconscious) with the way that it's written (deep in the rules text, not the beginning intro fluff).

I might lean towards making Alone deal Cha modifier damage instead of 2d4 psychic for ease of use on the DM.

Cease to Exist is functionally the same as plane shifting to the Astral Plane for the rest of the round. No time passes from your perspective, and you cannot be interacted with. I imagine any auras vanish temporarily. Spells that you are Concentrating on that you cast on someone else I'm not sure about. I'm leaning towards yes, it would break the Concentration in that case. In the case of spell buffs on yourself, their duration wouldn't tick down while they're phased out and Concentration wouldn't be broken in that case.