Comments from the Thumb: I've seen a lot of character concepts revolving around the "I've been cursed somehow" motif. Lots of DMs take advantage of this to add a permanent debuff of some kind to that character. I believe that is the wrong way to be going about it. Your cursed character should have some way to work around their disability or use it to their advantage. This subclass fills that particular roleplay niche. Mechanically, it takes inspiration from the 3.5 PrC's, the Hexer and the Dread Witch.
Witch
Others are gifted by magic; you are cursed by it. Regardless
of the origin of this insidious magic, it has twisted your appearance and
imprinted upon your very soul. You can channel this hateful arcana into spells,
inflicting the same torture which plagues you upon others.
You learn additional spells at the levels specified below. These spells don't count against your total number of spells known.
1st: bane, hex
1st: bane, hex
3rd: blindness/deafness, ray of enfeeblement
5th: bestow curse, fear
7th: confusion, phantasmal killer
9th: dominate person, mislead
5th: bestow curse, fear
7th: confusion, phantasmal killer
9th: dominate person, mislead
Hideous Appearance
When you select this origin at 1st level, you are afflicted
with a curse that makes your appearance hideous to behold. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for Intimidation checks, but you have disadvantage on
Persuasion checks.
Evil Eye
At 6th level, you can cast a horrific gaze upon your enemies. As an action, you can select 1 target that you can see and that can see you within 30 feet. This target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target becomes frightened for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if it can see you, ending the effect early on a success. A target that succeeds a saving throw against this effect is immune to it for 24 hours.
Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Paralyzing Touch
Starting at 14th level, your touch causes creatures to become paralyzed with fear. You may make a melee spell attack against a single creature within your reach. On a hit, the target becomes paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. Once you use this feature, you must complete a long rest before you may use it again.
Hexmaster
At 18th level, you command the terrors that each creature holds in its heart. You may expend 4 sorcery points to attempt to frighten all creatures of your choice within a 30 foot radius. Each creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature becomes frightened for 1 minute. For each creature frightened, you can select a source of fear other than yourself.
At 18th level, you command the terrors that each creature holds in its heart. You may expend 4 sorcery points to attempt to frighten all creatures of your choice within a 30 foot radius. Each creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature becomes frightened for 1 minute. For each creature frightened, you can select a source of fear other than yourself.
For Hideous appearence, do you add double prof to intimidate in addition to what you already have, or does it doule your proff bonus that applies to intimidate?
ReplyDeleteThe first would result in cha+2(proff bonus) if not ptoficient, and cha+3(proff bonus) if proficient.
The second would result in cha if not proficient and Cha+2(prof bonus) if proficient
I am as pemdas, so the number outside parentheses is multiplying the value within parentheses.
DeleteThis is Cha + 2(Prof Bonus) when you are proficient, or Cha + 0 if you are not proficient. In other words, if you add a proficiency bonus, you add double what you add. I'll edit this to be clearer on that point.
DeleteHeres an idea "you add your proficiency modifier to all intimidate checks in addition to the proficiency bonus from being proficient in the intimidate skill." It makes it so that even if they dont want to focus on intimidation the feature is useful. Otherwise it is just penalty unless they are proficient in intimidate.
DeleteI'm changing the wording to be closer to the bard's Expertise feature, which is what we were going for here.
DeleteAnother lovely option for the sorcerer class! Makes me think of the song "Control" by Halesy - something about the line "God damn right/ You should be scared of me" just goes perfectly with this subclass!
ReplyDeleteQuestion, though: Does Hexmaster require an action? Or is it just spend 4 points, people get scared? I feel like that's balanced enough, considering it takes sorcery points to use, and most higher cr enemies tend to have some form of fear immunity.
In fact, if I may be so bold as to suggest, I think the icing on the cake for this subclass would be a page out of the Dread Witch's book: some way to overcome fear immunity. Maybe treat creatures that have immunity as having Advantage vs. fear, and those with Advantage as having no outstanding resistance to Fear? Idk, maybe that's too strong.
Other than that, fantastic job as always! I really like Hideous Appearance, it feels both thematic AND useful, which is my favorite kind of ability.