The Raven Queen
Your patron is the Raven Queen, a mysterious being who rules the Shadowfell from a palace of ice deep within that dread realm. The Raven Queen watches over the world, anticipating each creature's death and ensuring that it meets its end at the prescribed time and place. As the ruler of the Shadowfell, she dwells in a decayed, dark reflection of the world. Her ability to reach into the world is limited. Thus, she turns to mortal warlocks to serve her will. Warlocks sworn to the Raven Queen receive visions and whispers from her in their dreams, sending them on quests and warning them of impending dangers.
The Raven Queen exists on the threshold between life and death. She sees the memories of every living creature as it dies and adds their memories to her own fragmented personality. Through this process she gains information and grows her power; however, this process often proceeds in a fashion and time unknowable to mortals. She can learn the memories of a person before they are even born, or generations after they have already died.
The Raven Queen's followers are expected to serve her will in the world. She concerns herself with ensuring that those fated to die pass from the world as expected, and bids her agents to defeat those who seek to cheat death through undeath or other imitations of immortality. She hates intelligent undead and expects her followers to strike them down, whereas mindless undead such as skeletons and zombies are little more than stumbling automatons in her eyes. She hates creatures who cheat their allocated time by continuing as undead because they steal that which she finds most precious.
The Raven Queen values the memories that living creatures create during their life; undead creatures are no longer truly alive, and though they can create new memories, those memories are lost into the void when they finally expire. Lesser undead are limited in what they can see or experience, the memories they create and lose are of little value. Greater undead, those who still retain some of the spark and drive they had when alive can persist long after their alloted time, gathering much that is then lost.
Expanded Spell List
The Raven Queen 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.
Raven Queen Expanded Spells
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | false life, sanctuary |
| 2 | silence, spiritual weapon |
| 3 | feign death, speak with dead |
| 4 | ice storm, death ward |
| 5 | commune, modify memory |
Sentinel Raven
Starting at 1st level, you gain the service of a spirit sent by the Raven Queen to watch over you. The spirit assumes the form and game statistics of a raven, and it always obeys your commands, which you can give telepathically while it is within 100 feet of you.
While the raven is perched on your shoulder, you gain darkvision with a range of 30 feet and a bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) score and to Wisdom (Perception) checks equal to your Charisma modifier. While perched on your shoulder, the raven is considered a part of you, is incapacitated, cannot be targeted by attacks, spells, or harmful effects, and cannot take damage.
As an action, you may shift your perception to the raven. You can see through the raven's eyes and hear what it hears while it is within 100 feet of you. While doing so, you are blinded and deafened to your own senses. In combat, you roll initiative for the raven and control how it acts. If it is slain by a creature, you gain advantage on all attack rolls against the killer for the next 24 hours.
The raven doesn't require sleep. While it is within 100 feet of you, it can awaken you from sleep as a bonus action. The raven vanishes when it dies, if you die, or if the two of you are separated by more than 5 miles.
At the end of a short or long rest, you can call the raven back to you, and it reappears within 5 feet of you.
Soul of the Raven
At 6th level, you gain the ability to merge with your raven spirit. As a bonus action when your raven is perched on your shoulder, your body merges with your raven's form. While merged, you take the physical appearance of a raven. Your equipment merges into your form, and your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and AC change to match that of a raven. Your hit points, Intelligence, Charisma, Wisdom, personality, and memories are unchanged. Your form is that of a tiny beast with a speed of 10 ft., a flight speed of 50 ft., and you can use your action only to Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, Hide, or Search. While you are merged, you have darkvision with a range of 30 ft. and a bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) score and to Wisdom (Perception) checks equal to your Charisma modifier. As an action, you and the raven return to normal. If you are reduced to 0 hit points while merged with the raven, the raven vanishes and you return to your normal form with 0 hit points and are dying.
Raven's Shield
At 10th level, the Raven Queen grants you a protective blessing. You gain advantage on death saving throws, immunity to the frightened condition, and resistance to necrotic damage.
Queen's Right Hand
Starting at 14th level, you can channel the Raven Queen's power to slay a creature by casting finger of death. When casting finger of death using this feature, a humanoid killed by the spell spawns a Living Shade instead of a zombie. The Living Shade is permanently under your control and follows verbal orders to the best of its ability.
After you cast the spell with this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.
Living Shade
medium fey, neutral
- Armor Class 12
- Hit Points 14 (3d8)
- Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 6 (-2) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 9 (-1) 10 (+0) 12 (+1)
- Skills Stealth +6
- Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
- Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgenoing, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
- Condition Immunities exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
- Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
- Languages understands Common but can't speak
- Challenge 1/4 (100 XP)
- Amorphous. The living shade can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
- Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the living shade can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
- Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the living shade has diadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Actions
Shadow Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) cold damage.
Eldritch Invocations
If an eldritch invocation has prerequisites, you must meet them to learn it. You can learn the invocation at the same time that you meet its prerequisites.
Chronicle of the Raven Queen
Prerequisites: Pact of the Tome, The Raven Queen patron
You can place a corpse's hand or similar appendage on your Book of Shadows and ask one question aloud. After 1 minute, the answer appears written in blood in your book. The answer is provided by the dead creature's spirit to the best of its knowledge and is translated into a language of your choice. You must use this ability within 1 minute of a creature's death, and a given creature can only be asked one question in this manner.
The Queen's Radiance
Prerequisites: 3rd level, The Raven Queen patron
While your raven spirit is on your shoulder you may use an action, expending a warlock spell slot, to implore the Raven Queen for assistance against those whose passage into death has been subverted. The raven grows into a shroud of dark feathers and almost audible whispers. Each undead within 30 feet that can see or hear you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. The raven then returns to its place on your shoulder.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.
Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.