The Unending Darkness (Homebrew)

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Overview & Creation

The cold embrace of death. The ultimate end of all beings. For the light of life to exist, it must also cast a shadow that is just as large. Your patron is not an individual, but a force of the universe. You draw power directly from the Negative Plane, a place of still air, darkness and death. You walk a fine line with your dealings. Any closer to the Negative Energy and you would would fall dead in your tracks, your essence stolen by the suffocating darkness. Great secrets of death and decay lie within the energies of death. Perhaps you were introduced through a cult, or you happened upon an ancient tome in a place of great darkness. In any case, your introduction to this force is a rarity. You control an aspect of death, prolonging life, or bringing forth the end. Warlocks of this patron often embody primal emotion as well, most notably fear and anger. Contact with the Negative Plane causes changes, subtle or large, in your behaviour and beliefs.  

Unending Darkness Expanded Spells

Level	Spells
1st	ray of sickness, inflict wounds
2nd	gentle repose, blindness/deafness
3rd	animate dead, phantom steed
4th	phantasmal killer, greater invisibility
5th	raise dead, hallow

 

Depth of Darkness

Your understanding of Negative Energy and death's cold embrace grants you an edge in dealing with the living. Starting at 1st level, you have resistance to necrotic damage. In addition, once per turn, when a spell you cast deals either cold or necrotic damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to the damage.  

Call of the Grave

The dark energy you channel allows you to shrug off fatal wounds at a hefty price. Starting at 6th level, when you would make a death saving throw, you can instead spring to your feet with unholy swiftness. As you rise, you let loose a blast of necromantic energy. All creatues within 30 feet of you take an amount of necrotic damage equal to 10 + your Charisma modifier. You regain a number of hit points equal to half of the total damage dealt + your warlock level. You also gain resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the end of your next turn, at which point you suffer two levels of exhaustion. However, if the damage from the blast reduced at least one hostile creature to 0 hit points, you instead suffer only one level of exhaustion. You must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.    

Dancing Darkness

Your affinity for Negative Energy allows you to modify the shape and size of shadows. Starting at 10th level, as an action, you can take control of the shadow of an object or creature that is in bright light or dim light. As a bonus action, you can cause the shadow to shrink or grow up to three times its normal size, hiss/snicker quietly, or change its shape to that of a creature within one size category of the target. In addition, you can use a bonus action to command the shadow to lift, push, or knock over objects. The shadow can move an object that weighs up to a number of pounds equal to 15 times your Charisma modifier. As an action, you can also command a shadow within 100 feet of you to attempt to grapple its host. Make a melee spell attack, using your warlock spell attack modifier. On a hit, the target takes no damage, and is instead grappled by its shadow. As a bonus action on your turn, you can command the shadow to strangle the grappled creature, dealing 1d8 necrotic damage. The grapple persists until the target of the grapple successfully breaks it. The target can attempt to break the grapple by using an action on its turn to make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against your warlock spell save DC, breaking the grapple on a success.  

Harrowing of the Soul

At 14th level, you can tap into the Unending Darkness to empower yourself. You have a pool of 10d6 that is restored once you complete a long rest. As a bonus action, you reach your hand out to touch a creature. Make a melee spell attack, using your warlock spell attack modifier. If you hit the target, you can expend as many dice from this pool as you like to deal necrotic damage to the target equal to the result, regaining a number of hit points equal to half of the damage dealt (rounded up). If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with this feature, choose one of the following effects: 

• You lose one level of exhaustion. 
• You regain up to two spent warlock hit dice. 
• You gain the effect of a lesser restoration spell. 
• Your severed body members (fingers, legs, tails, and so on), if any, are restored after 2 minutes. If you have the severed part and hold it to the stump, the limb is instead instantly knit to the stump.