Working on Void Disciples and Void Masters (Tharizdun/Yog-Sothoth Diviners)

[Yora]

I got this idea for a really cool location in my Isle of Dread campaign and the monsters that inhabit it. It's based on the Evil Abbey from the adventure Master of the Desert Nomads and The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, with a big helping of Senpou Temple from Sekiro.

Several centuries ago a group of hermits sailed to the furthest corner of the world to contemplate the mysteries of the moon and pursue enlightenment in isolation. They came to the Isle of Dread, which at that time had no settlements yet, and moved into the empty ruins of a castle high up in the central mountains. They studied the magic of wizards and specialized in divination, and devoted themselves to the worship of the moon goddess as the patron of mystical knowledge.
In the many decades they lived on the island, they discovered ruins and shrines even older than their monastery, and of course began to study the secrets contained in the ancient inscriptions and reliefs. Over time their traditional believes of the moon cult changed and they began worshiping the Black Sun. They are not sure if the black sun lies beneath the island, if it will appear at the island in the future, if it is a future state of the moon, or it is really more a concept than an actual object, but they believe that true transcendence of mortality and the conscious mind is not to be found in the moon, but in the Dark Void beyond the Stars. Through their magical studies they were corrupted and warped by the cold necrotic essence of the void and lost all of their humanity.

My idea for the disciples in the monastery is that they have turned into wights, but they retain their appearance as living people during the day. At sunset they retreat into their inner sanctum and seal the doors behind them and don't come out again until sunrise.

The masters have transformed much more significantly, having turned into giant gibbering mouthers that regain their sanity during the night but turn into mindless abominations when the sun comes up.

The monastery also has human and ogre servants who are always covered in heavy robes with their faced hidden under large hoods, because they are zombies created and controlled by the wights.

I think it's a great start, but I want them to be more than just wights and upscaled gibbering mouthers. I was thinking about giving them Way of the Shadow abilities from monks, but since they used to be Diviner wizards in life I'm not too sure if that really fits. Given their current activities, I think they should perhaps get some warlock abilities instead.

I am really not sure, so I am open to any suggestions.

[GaelofDarkness]

I really love the flavour of this. And I think your right that it makes more sense for them to have warlock-ish abilities than shadow monk abilities, it better suits the feel of diviners who looked too deeply into the void and were changed by what they say better imo.

Have you considered giving the Disciples and Masters some abilities from the Star Spawn stat blocks in MToF? Some of them could definitely be reskinned to hit some of the same notes as a shadow monk. The Star Spawn Seer has Out-of-Phase Movement that lets it move through creatures and objects dealing psychic damage as it goes (which you could change to necrotic if that suited your purposes better). The Bend Space reaction lets the Seer swap places with another Star Spawn within 60 feet when attacked. The monks could use that in conjunction with their zombie servants very effectively. There's also the Star Spawn Mangler's Shadow Stealth and the Star Spawn Hulk's Psychic Mirror that could be candidates for Void Disciple/Master abilities. And if you want to throw in a little extra Senpou Temple feel, the Star Spawn Larva Mage's Return to Worms and Plaugue of Worms abilities could be reskinned to centipedes - or whatever creeping, slithering or scittering thing you feel best suits.