Warlock Patron
The Ratmind
An ordinary rat colony is usually a few individuals; a large one can contain a dozen or more. A ratmind colony contains thousands, so many that the rats find themselves welded into a psionic hivemind. Scholars disagree on whether ratminds arise spontaneously or whether the rats need a specific psionic awakening; extraplanar explorers even report rats with exposed brains, naturally forming mighty ratminds.
Regardless, a powerful ratmind develops psionic powers great enough that it can support even a powerful warlock. Ratmind warlocks gain a share of their patron's psionics, acquiring psionic powers and a limited ability to connect minds themselves. These warlocks also tend to take on the ratty attributes of their patrons; many have a furtive, scurrying demeanor.
The Ratmind Patron Features
| Warlock Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 1st | Expanded Spell List, Psionic Link, Projected Vermin |
| 6th | Scurry and Scuttle, Multiplicative Mind |
| 10th | Rat Swarm |
| 14th | Hive Mind |
Expanded Spell List
The The Ratmind 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.
| Warlock Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | future insightK, unlocked potentialK |
| 3rd | glimpse the futureK, levitate |
| 5th | nondetection, deepen shadowsS |
| 7th | confusion, phantasmal killer |
| 9th | shockwaveK, psychokinesisSDS |
The following swaps will improve your experience: replace confusion with bewilderSDS, and phantamsal killer with phantasmal horrorSDS.
Spells marked with S were created by somanyrobots. Spells marked with SDS were created as part of the Spells That Don't Suck project. Spells marked with K were created by KibblesTasty and used with permission. All are linked in the Spell Sources appendix.
Psionic Link
At 1st level, you gain a psychic connection to your patron, and the ability to psychically connect to other creatures around you. When you finish a long rest, you can perform a special ritual over 1 minute to establish a telepathic bond with a number of willing creatures within 30 feet up to your proficiency bonus. Every creature within the bond can communicate telepathically with every other one, as long as they are within 30 feet of each other.
You can end your Psionic Link as an action, and it ends automatically when you finish a long rest.
Projected Vermin
Also at 1st level, you gain the ability to create a psionic projection of a rat. As a bonus action, you can conjure a Tiny psionic rat ghost in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you. This psi ghost has the statistics of a rat, and you interact with it following all the rules as if you summoned it with find familiar. This rat is obviously spectral in nature to anyone who observes it.
When you cast a spell from your Expanded Spell List, you can cast it as if you occupy the rat ghost's space. If you do so, the rat ghost dies. If you create a new rat ghost, any existing rat ghost dies.
Scurry and Scuttle
At 6th level, you gain some of the rat's hardiness and ability to sense danger. You gain resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition. In addition, you now have advantage on passive Perception checks, and you automatically Dash (no action required) on the first round of combat.
It's a little buried in the rules, but advantage on a passive check results in a +5 bonus.
Multiplicative Mind
Also at 6th level, your Psionic Link allows you to increase your arcane might in the same manner as your patron's networked mind. When you establish your Psionic Link, you gain a number of additional spell slots. You can choose how many spell slots and of what levels, but their combined levels can't be greater than the number of creatures in your Link.
These spell slots can't be at a higher level than the spell slots from your Pact Magic feature. These spell slots fade if unused when you finish a long rest.
Rat Swarm
At 10th level, when you create your Projected Vermin, you can choose instead to create a Small or Medium swarm of psionic rat ghosts. This uses the statistics of a swarm of rats, but uses your spell attack modifier to hit with its attacks. It can't use its own action to attack, but you can use your bonus action to command it to take the Attack action. If you create a new creature (either a swarm or a single rat ghost), any existing rat ghosts die.
When you cast a spell from your Expanded Spell List, you can cast it as if you occupy the swarm's space. If you do so, the swarm loses 5 hit points, but its next attack has advantage and deals 2d6 extra psychic damage.
Hive Mind
At 14th level, you can expand your mind by drawing on the creatures around you, following in your patron's tiny footsteps. When you cast a spell while your Psionic Link is in effect, you can choose to eject any number of creatures from the Link. If you do so, you gain a bonus to the spell attack roll or save DC equal to the number of creatures removed.
The Ratmind Patron quirks
The following are some optional quirks for a player of this subclass to choose from.
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your face is long and narrow. |
| 2 | The top of your skull is translucent, revealing your brain. |
| 3 | You have a furtive, darting manner. |
| 4 | You have to file your teeth down, because they just won't stop growing. |
| 5 | It's really fun to dig through trash. |
| 6 | Occasionally you double up your word-speakings. |
Appendix 1: Spell Sources
Spells used are available in these collections, all of which are free to use and reference for any purpose.
- Spells That Don't Suck is a set of spells by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, creating replacements for problematic spells contained in first-party WotC materials. These are marked with SDS.
- So Many Spells is a set of wholly original spells written by somanyrobots. These are marked with S.
- Kibbles' Casting Compendium is the complete set of spells written by KibblesTasty. These are marked with K.
Change Log
v0.3
- Fixed Hive Mind (forgot to correct it for the changes in v0.2)
- Reworded Multiplicative Mind
v0.2
- Renamed Multiplicative Mind to Psionic Link and gently nerfed it
- Created a new Multiplicative Mind feature at 6th
v0.1
- Rough Draft
Credits & References:
The Ratmind Patron created by somanyrobots Discord | Patreon
Spells
- Future Insight, Unlocked Potential, Glimpse the Future, and Shockwave by KibblesTasty
- Psychokinesis by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots
- Deepen Shadows by somanyrobots
Art
Stronghold Rats, by Brandon Kitkouski © Wizards of the Coast LLC
Background Image Stains
License
© 2026 somanyrobots, CC BY-NC 4.0
Includes spells from Kibbles' Casting Compendium 2.0 by KibblesTasty Homebrew LLC, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
Includes spells from Spells That Don't Suck by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
Fan Content Policy
This work is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
5E SRD Content
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available here.
The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here. -->