Warlock:
The Shadow
Your patron is a powerful being, hailing from the world between light and dark, between life and death: the Shadowdell. This patron may be a great Shadow Dragon, an archlich, or even the Raven Queen herself.
Expanded Spell List
At 1st level, your patron 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.
| Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Bane, Dissonant Whispers |
| 2nd | Pass without a trace, Blindness/Deafness |
| 3rd | Nondetection, Meld into Stone (appears as becoming a shadow on stone) |
| 4th | Death Ward, Greater Invisibility |
| 5th | Maelstrom (appears as a churning abyss of darkness), Passwall (appears stepping into a shadow on the surface) |
Shaping Shadows
Level 1 Shadow feature
You learn the gather shadows (below) and light cantrips. They count as warlock cantrips for you, but they don’t count against your number of cantrips known.
Gather Shadows (New)
Illusion cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: S
- Duration: Up to an hour
You create one of the following magical effects within range, wielding tricks of the light and darkness to your advantage:
- You darken a light sources to move it down a category of illumination, turning a bright lights into a dim lights, or a dim light into darkness.
- In light or dim light, you can project an animated scene of complex shadow puppets, this may include silhouettes of creatures and/or objects, and even text.
- You disjoint a shadow from its source, causing it double or half in size, freeze in place, or make movements that don't reflect those of its source.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have no more than two of its effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.
Essence of Shadow
Level 1 Shadow feature
Additionally, you gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If you already have darkvision, its range increases by 30 feet. If you get the Devil’s Sight invocation at level 2, its range is extended to 150 feet.
You are also adept at evading creatures that rely on darkvision. While in darkness, you are invisible to any creature that relies on darkvision to see you in that darkness.
You become proficient with stealth. If you already have proficiency in stealth, you become an expert, doubling your proficiency bonus.
Shadow Companion
Level 1 Shadow feature
Your patrson merges a shade with your shadow, creating for you a Shadow Companion with which you can communicate with telepathically and provides you the following benefits:
- Shadow Void. Your Shadow Companion acts as a gatekeeper between you and a pocket shadow dimension that can store items for you. You cannot store more than 500 pounds and a volume of 64 cubit feet at a time: if you attempt to put something in the bag that would exceed either limit, your Shadow Companion will instead place it in the floor next to you. You can store or remove an item from the void by reaching into your shadow, which takes an action. Breathing creatures inside the pocket dimension can survive up to a number of minutes equal to 10 divided by the number of creatures (minimum 1 minute), after which time they begin to suffocate. Your Shadow Companion will not allow other extradimensional space items to be put into the void.
- Shadow Servant. Your Shadow Companion can act as an Unseen Servant, requiring no spell slots. Rather than being invisible, this servant looks like a living shadow. You can use this feature a number of times up to your CHA modifier (minimum: 1). You regain all uses after a long rest.
- Shadow Sentry. You can telepathically command your shadow companion to split and leave part of its essence at a specific spot, sharing the space with an existing shadow or dark area. You can instruct your sentry to notify you if a certain event happens at that space (eg. any intruders enter, a certain person or creature shows up, a guard passes, etc.). At 10th level you can have up to two sentries active at a time. A sentry can be active a number of hours equal to your spell DC. You can use this feature a number of times up to your CHA modifier (minimum: 1). You regain all uses after a long rest.
- Shadow Hand. You learn the mage hand cantrip, and it appears as the shadowy hand of your shadow companion.
Shadow Step
Level 6 Shadow feature
You can step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You then have advantage on the first attack you make before the end of the turn.
- At level 10 your teleport range increases to up to 60 feet.
Blinding Shadow
Level 10 Shadow feature
You sever a target’s shadow from it, and cause it to attack that target. The target must make a Constitution saving throw vs. your spell DC. On a failed save, a creature takes 6d6+6 force damage and is blinded for 1 minute. This damage increases to 8d6+8 force damage at level 14, and 10d6+10 force damage at level 18.
On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and isn't blinded by this spell.
A creature blinded by this spell makes another Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a successful save, it is no longer blinded. On a failed save, it takes an additional 2d6 force damage (increasing to 3d6 at level 14, and 4d6 at level 18) and remains blinded.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your CHA modifier (minimum: 1). You regain all uses after a long rest.
Shadow Form
Level 14 Shadow feature
As a bonus action you can transform yourself into a shadowy form.
- In this form, you have resistance to all damage except force and radiant damage, and you can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 5 force damage if you end your turn inside an object.
- You gain a fly speed equal to your movement speed while in Shadow Form.
- You remain in this form for 1 hour. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action.
- If you are in this form and you attack or take damage, then duration is reduced to 1 minute.
- You can transform a number of times equal to your CHA modifier (minimum: 1). You regain all uses after a long rest.
Dhampir
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
Poised between the worlds of the living and the dead, dhampirs retain their grip on life yet are endlessly tested by vicious hungers. Their ties to the undead grant dhampirs a taste of a vampire’s deathless prowess in the form of increased speed, darkvision, and a life-draining bite.
With unique insights into the nature of the undead, many dhampirs become adventurers and monster hunters. Their reasons are often deeply personal. Some seek danger, imagining monsters as personifications of their own hungers. Others pursue revenge against whatever turned them into a dhampir. And still others embrace the solitude of the hunt, striving to distance themselves from those who’d tempt their hunger.
Dhampir Hungers. Every dhampir knows a thirst slaked only by the living. Those who overindulge their thirst risk losing control and forever viewing others as prey. Those who resist might find exceptional ways of controlling their urges or suppress them through constant, molar-grinding restraint. In any case, temptation haunts dhampirs, and circumstances conspire to give them endless reasons to indulge. While many dhampirs thirst for blood, your character might otherwise gain sustenance from the living. Roll on or choose an option from the Dhampir Hungers table to determine what tempts your character to feed.
| d6 | Hunger |
|---|---|
| 1 | Blood |
| 2 | Flesh or raw meat |
| 3 | Cerebral spinal fluid |
| 4 | Psychic energy |
| 5 | Dreams |
| 6 | Life energy |
Dhampir Origins Dhampirs often arise from encounters with vampires, but all manner of macabre bargains, necromantic influences, and encounters with mysterious immortals might have transformed your character. The Dhampir Origins table provides suggestions for how your character gained their lineage.
| d8 | Origin |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are the reincarnation of an ancestor who was a vampiric tyrant. |
| 2 | Your pact with a predatory deity, fiend, fey, or spirit causes you to share their hunger. |
| 3 | You survived being attacked by a vampire but were forever changed. |
| 4 | A parasite lives inside you. You indulge its hunger. |
| 5 | Tragedy interrupted your transformation into an immortal. |
| 6 | You are a diminished form of an otherworldly being. Slaking your hunger hastens your renewal. |
| 7 | One of your parents was a vampire. |
| 8 | A radical experiment changed your body, making you reliant on others for vital fluids. |
Dhampir Traits
- Ability Score Increase. Increase one ability score by 2 and increase a different one by 1, or increase three different ability scores by 1. If you are replacing your race with this lineage, replace any Ability Score Increase you previously had with this.
- Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. If you are replacing your race with this lineage, you retain any languages you had and gain no new languages.
- Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
- Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you gain this lineage.
- Speed. Your walking speed is 35 feet.
- Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.
- If you don't keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficency in two skills of your choice.
- Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness as shades of gray.
- Deathless Nature. You don't need to breathe.
- Spider Climb. You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. In addition, at 3rd level, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free.
- Vampiric Bite. Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.
- When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
- You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
- You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
- You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Yuan-Ti Pureblood
The serpent creatures known as yuan-ti are all that remains of an ancient, decadent human empire. Ages ago their dark gods taught them profane, cannibalistic rituals to mix their flesh with that of snakes, producing a caste-based society of hybrids in which the most snakelike are the leaders and the most humanlike are spies and agents in foreign lands.
- Ability Score Increase. When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. You can't raise any of your scores above 20.
- Age. Purebloods mature at the same rate as humans and have lifespans similar in length to theirs.
- Alignment. Purebloods are devoid of emotion and see others as tools to manipulate. They care little for law or chaos and are typically neutral evil.
- Size. Purebloods match humans in average size and weight. Your size is Medium.
- Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
- Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
- Innate Spellcasting. You know the Poison Spray cantrip. You can cast Animal Friendship an unlimited number of times with this trait, but you can target only snakes with it. Starting at 3rd level, you can also cast Suggestion with this trait. Once you cast it, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
- Magic Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
- Poison Immunity. You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
- Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Abyssal, and Draconic.