Spellbook of Vile Darkness

by WhiteWarrior625

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The Spellbook of Vile Darkness

What is This?

I am a firm believer that, in the style of Frodo Baggins, some characters' stories can be motivated by the finding of a powerful artifact. This is a great way to provide a source of conflict. However, when looking through most of the artifacts in the Dungeon Master's Guide, they are very obviously not designed in a way conducive to such a process.

What follows is my creation ( a loose term, as most of this is from the original artifact description and a few reddit posts on the subject) of The Spellbook of Vile Darkness, a version of The Book of Vile Darkness designed to provide an interesting storyline and abilities to a Wizard who has foolishly taken it on as a spellbook, while also (hopefully) keeping the game relatively balanced.

Situational Effects

The book itself contains a great many horrific and dark pieces of knowledge that could prove useful to the brave researcher. The pages of the book rarely contain the same information, and may be in languages from Abyssal to Infernal to Deep Speech or any dark languages in between.

  • Dark Knowledge: The book can be used to gain knowledge on dark subjects. The holder may choose to look through the book in order to gain an Expertise (twice their proficiency bonus) bonus to any Arcana, Religion, History, or Nature check relating to Dark or Evil subjects (what qualifies is up to DM discretion). Notably, this feature may be able to reveal the true names of certain fiends. When used this way, the researcher should make a Wisdom saving throw against the madness table.

  • Dark Speech: The holder can read evil text from the book, taking 1d12 psychic damage themselves and causing non-evil creatures within 15 feet to take 3d6 psychic damage. Using the book in this manner causes the speaker to roll against the madness table.

Madness

When told to roll against the madness table, make a Wisdom Saving Throw:

Madness Severity
Roll Madness Type
5 or less 1 indefinite madness
10 - 6 1 long-term madness
15 - 11 1 short-term madness
16 or higher no effect

Dark Enticements

As the unfortunate wizard spends more time with the Book, they occasionally will experience the effects of carrying around such a vile artifact.

Starting at 3rd level, and continuing every other level until 15th, the holder of the Book will experience the temptations of the dark forces contained within. They will receive a beneficial effect as well as a detrimental effect from the book. They also have a low-level spell transformed and a new spell added to their spell list.

The price of these changes comes in the form of a Charisma saving throw, of which the DC is equal to 10 + the number of previous saves. If the save is failed, the holder's alignment shifts to evil.

Terrifying Temptation

In order to highlight the temptation aspect of the dark artifact, the DM is encouraged to accompany or proceed each round of effects with a dream sequence, often containing imagery of the holder performing vile deeds in exchange for power.

You can also require a roll on the madness table to highlight the terrifying nature of the experience.

Dark Enticements
Level Beneficial Effect Detrimental Effect Spell Buff Spell Addition
3rd Dark One's Own Tongue Dark Punishment 1 1st level transformed spell Angry Wounds
5th Dark One's Own Presence Corrupting Aura 1 2nd level transformed spell Destroy Memories
7th Dark One's Own Will Demonic Appearance 1 3rd level transformed spell Borrow Limb
9th Dark One's Own Command Animal Enmity 1 4th level transformed spell Weight of Ages
11th Dark One's Own Strength Dark One's Own Flaw 1 5th level transformed spell Curse of Ghatanathoa
13th Dark One's Own Resilience Power's Toll 1 6th level transformed spell Deep Sleep
15th Ritual of the Lich ─ 1 7th level transformed spell Choke

Enticement Effects

Beneficial Effects

  • Dark One's Own Tongue: Dark words seem to come more naturally to you. You are now proficient in the Deception skill if you weren't already.
  • ** Dark One's Own Presence:** You are getting used to a harsher attitude towards others. You are now proficient in the Intimidation skill if you weren't already.
  • Dark One's Own Will: The darkness in which you walk has strengthened your inner will. You cannot be charmed or frightened.
  • Dark One's Own Command: Other creatures that walk in darkness recognize the power you carry. Once a day you may cast the spell Dominate Monster on an evil creature, with a DC of 18.
  • Dark One's Own Strength: The supernatural artifact you carry has had much time to change the makeup of your being. One ability score of your choice increases by 2, with a new natural cap of 22 if necessary.
  • Dark One's Own Resilience: The pure darkness that flows through your veins imparts strength to you. You can no longer be blinded, deafened, petrified, or stunned.
  • Ritual of the Lich: One of the things you will notice is that at 15th level the wizard encounters something called 'ritual of the lich'. By that point I assume that the Book has given them enough information that beginning the process of becoming a lich is the natural next step. I have purposely left off that section in this resource, as there are many different ways DMs choose to run such magics and it will likely be heavily affected by the story of your individual campaign, so laying it out in this document would be insufficient in terms of helpfulness.

Detrimental Effects

  • Dark Punishment: Attempts to abandon the book are not take lightly. Any time you move more than 10 feet from the Book, you immediately become blinded.
  • Corrupting Aura: The dark artifact you carry carry reviles what is sacred. Holy Water that is brought within 30 feet of you is instantly destroyed.
  • Demonic Appearance: Your appearance changes, with one of your features becoming dark in nature. Your hair might fall out or your eyes might perpetually burn with a purple flame. This grants Disadvantage on Persuasion rolls against non-evil creatures, and Celestials and creatures of great goodness are naturally hostile to you. DMs should definitely consider the other negative social ramifications of this change.
  • Animal Enmity: The dark presence that goes with you is immediately apparent to animals and beasts. Any animal that comes within 30 feet of you becomes hostile towards you.
  • Dark One's Own Flaw: The book exacts a price from you for your increased ability. One ability score of your choice decreases by 2.
  • Power's Toll: After remaining in the hold of the Book for so long, it begins to extract vitality from your physical form. You are vulnerable to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Transformed Spells

One of the effects of being bound to such a powerful source of evil and darkness is a sort of 'mutation' effect in the wizard's magic, causing some of their spells to become darker versions of those effects. Each time the holder gains a new transformed spell, the DM should choose one of the spells the wizard already has access to (preferably one they already use fairly frequently) and then the next time the holder casts that spell modify the effects, creating a vaguely different spell.

Here's an example:

Barkskin

2nd-level transmutation

  • Casting Time: 1 action
  • Range: touch
  • Components: V, M, S (a handful of oak bark)
  • Duration: 1 hour (concentration)

You touch a willing creature. Until the spell ends, the target's skin has a rough, bark-like appearance, and the target's AC can't be less than 16, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing.

This spell could easily be tweaked into

Skin of Atlach-nacha

2nd-level transmutation

  • Casting Time: 1 action
  • Range: touch
  • Components: S, M, V (the moult from a spider)
  • Duration: 1 hour (concentration)

You touch a willing creature and turn their skin to a hard, shimmering black chitin. Until the spell ends, the target's AC can't be less than 16, regardless of what kind of armor they are wearing. In addition, the target has advantage on Intimidation checks made while they look like this.

Naturally, the DM has much free reign to determine whether these transformations are this small or something much larger.

New Spells

One of the best ways to give the impression that the wizard is learning dark secrets from the book is to award them with new, dark, and interesting spells they can add to their spellbook. Listed on the table above are a few of my favorite homebrew spells to use for this purpose, taken from the documents below (which I highly recommend you check out anyway):

  • 101 #nd Level Spells has documents for several spell levels detailing some interesting options.
  • Secretum Secretorum by B.A. Morrier (I can't seem to find a link to this document anymore)
  • Lovecraftian Spells is a great resource for flavoring spells and has several great ones in it (the Skin of Atlach-nacha comes from that list).

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