The Gray Portrait

The Gray Portrait
Written by WHK (/u/GenuineBelieverer)

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Your dedication to art and beauty has led you to discover the art of creating a Gray Portrait: an artifact that your soul and body are bound to. The portrait reflects your inner self, and suffers the damage you would take, the diseases you would contract, and the cruelty you may inflict. It grants you the power to use your art to perform feats of incredible magic, and to paint beauty and ugliness alike upon the fabric of reality. This freedom from responsibility is corruptive, however, so one must be wary - if the portrait is destroyed, all that suffering returns to collect the devil's due.

The Portrait is not a patron with desires of its own. Indeed, it is the freedom from responsibility and consequence that makes it so enticing and desirable, but that same freedom gives the warlock all the farther to fall. Consider these plot hooks:

A rival artist has declared war on the warlock for stealing his audience, and vows bloody revenge. To what depths will they sink to gain it?

The warlock's portrait has been discovered by someone untrustworthy - who are they, and what do they plan? Someone from the warlock's past recognizes them, but swears they haven't aged a day - how does this impact their relationship?

A friend of the warlock's sees the decay of the Portrait, and fears for the soul of their companion. How do they intervene?

The Gray Portrait is an homage to the classic tale The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, featuring a man whose supernatural painting kept him safe from the evil he did to himself and others, until he realized what he had become

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Bound to the Painting

At 1st level, you create and magically bind yourself to your Gray Portrait. The Gray Portrait is a Small object that weighs at least 25 lbs. and has 15 AC, hit points equal to 10 plus three times your warlock level, and resistance to all damage.

It uses your statistics for saving throws. If your portrait is ever destroyed, you die. It can be repaired using the spell mending at a rate of 1 hit point per minute. You can choose to see through the Portrait's eyes at any time, and are always aware of its current state. The Portrait does not have to be a painting, but it must be an object that resembles you, such as a statue, doll, or mask. You gain immunity to disease, and you gain advantage on saving throws against poisons and the poisoned condition. Finally, your appearance becomes one of the following: timeless, youthful, refined, dignified, beautiful, elegant, or debauched, and it seems to always stay that way.

Redirected Suffering

At 6th level, you can more easily send your pain to your painting. Whenever you suffer damage, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to that damage. When you do, your painting suffers an equal amount of damage that ignores its resistances. Whenever you rest, your Gray Portrait mends itself. It recovers half its hit points when you finish a short rest, and recovers all lost hit points when you finish a long rest.

Parchment Skin

At 10th level, you are irreversibly bound to your Portrait. You no longer age, and cannot be magically aged. You gain resistance to necrotic damage and immunity to effects that would reduce the value of your maximum hit points, such as a vampire's life-draining attack.

Hated Immortal

At 14th level, your ties to the Portrait enable you to destroy the lives of others, twisting them with terrible compulsions and inspiring thoughts of revenge. You can cast geas or modify memory once without expending a spell slot. You cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

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Eldritch Invocations

Cursed Portfolio

Prerequisites: Gray Portrait patron, Pact of the Tome feature Whenever you cast a spell that creates an illusion, you can use a bonus action to become invisible until the start of your next turn, leaving an illusion of yourself standing in your place.

You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, and these uses recover when you finish a long rest.

Living Art

Prerequisites: Gray Portrait patron, Pact of the Chain feature

When you have an animate image as your familiar, it gains additional maximum hit points equal to your warlock level. The first time you attack a creature that the image has used the Help action on within the past round, the creature takes slashing damage equal to your Charisma modifier.

Magnum Opus

Prerequisites: Gray Portrait patron, 18th level

You can cast mirage arcane and symbol without expending a spell slot. You can cast one of these spells once. After you do so, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest

Masterful Artisan

Prerequisites: Gray Portrait patron, 6th level

You learn to cast even the most complex of spells using pure creative talent. Whenever you cast a spell that has a material component, you can choose to ignore the material component if it does not have a cost in gold. When you cast a spell that has a material component that does have a cost in gold, you can increase the casting time according to the following table in order to ignore the material component. Whenever you cast a spell with a casting time greater than 8 hours, you gain one level of exhaustion for each 8-hour period after the first. If this would cause you to reach the maximum level of exhaustion and die, your spellcasting continues until you are interrupted or you finish, at which point you would die. If the material component is directly tied to the spell itself, such as in the spell imprisonment, then you magically produce an artwork of equivalent value as part of the spellcasting process

Casting Time Table | Gold Value Casting Time

 10 gp | +1 round

 50 gp  | +1 hour

100 gp | the greater of 2x base casting time or 4 hours

1,000 gp | the greater of 5x base casting time or 16 hours

10,000 gp | the greater of 10x base casting time or 24 hours

10,001+ gp | the greater of 25x base casting time or 40 hours

 When consulting this table, choose the lowest gold value that would fully cover the gold value of the material component

 Papercut

Prerequisites: Gray Portrait patron, Pact of the Blade feature

 You can create a rapier of pale parchment covered in bloody scratches using your Pact of the Blade feature. Creatures struck by this weapon cannot regain hit points and have disadvantage on the first saving throw they make against a spell from the schools of illusion or enchantment for one minute.

 Signature Work

Prerequisites: Gray Portrait patron, 16th level

You can cast programmed illusion without using a spell slot. When you do, you can choose a single cantrip that you can cast. The illusion can cast this cantrip once per minute as part of its programming. It uses your warlock spellcasting ability for attack rolls and saving throw DCs. If you grant a cantrip to an illusion and the illusion would suffer damage from an attack, it is immediately dispelled. Once you cast this spell, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.

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 Critique of Ser Isendale's Mirror

 Truly, this statue is a sham, the artist a buffoon, and the decorations are simply appalling to anyone with a sense of taste or true artistic talent. The eerie thing seems to follow you around the room, and not in the way of a skilled sculptor's work. Nay, when I deigned to inspect it, the accursed thing seemed to bite at me with its little teeth. Surely a trick of the light played upon me by my disgust for the abomination, but nevertheless. Spare your eyes, good people. Much like the artist himself, there is nothing of saintly virtue here!

The last publishing of Ser Verigio, before his unfortunate and untimely accident.

Traits of the Artist

 

 Binding one's life to an artwork is not something done without consequence, and takes a toll upon the mind and body alike. Consider adding one or more of these traits when creating a warlock or after acting without care for the consequences.

Roll Trait

1 You suffer bouts of paranoia.

2 You insist on having only the finest food and drink.

3 You sometimes talk in your sleep, laughing at the misfortune you have seen during the day.

4 You are extremely critical of other artists. 5 You are a shameless self-promoter, even when doing so would be inappropriate.

6 You move in a way that is stiff and precise.

7 You laugh uncontrollably at odd times.

8 You tend to look down on those of lower social standing.

9 You sometimes ignore social standards regarding dress and fashion.

10 You appear dry and clean at all times, even in water.

11 Your skin becomes like plastic, smooth and free from marks or imperfections.

12 Your eyes are deep and captivating.

13 Your hands are always freshly manicured.

14 Your heartbeat can't be heard, only felt.

15 Clothing or armor you wear for long periods of time assumes the appearance of what you were wearing in your Gray Portrait.

16 Your blood slowly becomes paint when exposed to air.

17 Your hair is always identical to how it was in your Gray Portrait.

18 A scent of perfume seems to follow you.

19 When you cast a spell, a shadowy duplicate of yourself seems to stand beside you.

20 Your voice becomes rich in timbre and tone.

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Animate Image Small construct, neutral

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Armor Class 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points 22 (5d6+5)

Speed 30 ft., special

STR 10 (0) DEX 16 (+3) CON 13 (+1) INT 8 (-1) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 11 (0)

Skills Perception +5

Damage Immunities attacks from nonmagical sources

Condition Immunities poisoned, exhausted, deafened, blinded, restrained

Senses blindsight 5 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages understands Common and those known by its master, but can't speak.

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

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Magic Resistance. The animate image has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

On Your Skin. Any time the animate image is covering a creature, attacks against that target that hit the image cause the full damage to be applied to the creature underneath as well.

Two Dimensional. The animate image cannot stand on its own, but it can cover any surface without being harmed. Whenever it is touching a creature or object that moves, the image goes with it. The image can slide through cracks as thin as paper without suffering ill effect. If the image is located on an object held in midair that isn't touching anything else, as though by levitation, it is trapped and cannot move.

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Actions

Papercut. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target. Hit: 5 slashing damage. If the animate image can't be seen by one of its allies, it can't use this attack.

Inscribe. The image burns a copy of itself onto the surface it is covering, inflicting 1 acid damage.

 

 

 

 

Expanded Spell List

The Gray Portrait 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.

The Gray Portrait Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	color spray, sanctuary
2nd	calm emotions, enhance ability
3rd	glyph of warding, sending
4th	death ward, stone shape
5th	contagion, mislead

Bound to the Painting

At 1st level, you create and magically bind yourself to your Gray Portrait. The Gray Portrait is a Small object that weighs at least 25 lbs. and has 15 AC, hit points equal to 10 plus three times your warlock level, and resistance to all damage

It uses your statistics for saving throws. If your portrait is ever destroyed, you die. It can be repaired using the spell mending at a rate of 1 hit point per minute.

You can choose to see through the Portrait's eyes at any time, and are always aware of its current state. The Portrait does not have to be a painting, but it must be an object that resembles you, such as a statue, doll, or mask. You gain immunity to disease, and you gain advantage on saving throws against poisons and the poisoned condition. Finally, your appearance becomes one of the following: timeless, youthful, refined, dignified, beautiful, elegant, or debauched, and it seems to always stay that way.

Redirected Suffering

At 6th level, you can more easily send your pain to your painting. Whenever you suffer damage, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to that damage.

When you do, your painting suffers an equal amount of damage that ignores its resistances. Whenever you rest, your Gray Portrait mends itself. It recovers half its hit points when you finish a short rest, and recovers all lost hit points when you finish a long rest.

Parchment Skin

At 10th level, you are irreversibly bound to your Portrait. You no longer age, and cannot be magically aged. You gain resistance to necrotic damage and immunity to effects that would reduce the value of your maximum hit points, such as a vampire's life draining attack.

Hated Immortal

At 14th level, your ties to the Portrait enable you to destroy the lives of others, twisting them with terrible compulsions and inspiring thoughts of revenge.

You can cast geas or modify memory once without expending a spell slot. You cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.