Spirit Hunter

Overview: The Spirit Hunter is a menacing subclass of warlock specializing in tracking down and capturing spirits for later use in battle. Masters of arcane rituals and dark magic, Spirit Hunters bind these captured spirits to their will, unleashing them upon foes when the time is right.

How it Works: Your soul is split into 10 pieces and you must use 1 piece per CR Level (Rounded Up) to capture a spirit. You can store them in any arcane focus you'd like but some suggestions include; A Tome, Tattoos, Scrolls, Cravings, Etc. You can summon a spirit using an action and can unsummon it using a bonus action. The spirit cannot be healed except on a short/long rest. You can only have 1 spirit out at one time and it can only stay out for 2 hours before needing a short rest to be summoned again. You have direct control of the spirit but being knocked unconscious, petrified, on death saving throws or incapacitated while you have an active spirit allows it to do a Wis Saving Throw DC 10 + Your Wis Mod + Proficiency and on a success it breaks free and will try to flee or fight back if cornered. 

Note that when a spirit you have summoned dies you lose the Soul Shards that you had used to capture it. If you run out of Soul Shards, you die. You can regain Soul Shards by sacrificing a spirit that failed it's Cha Save for Capturing and instead of capturing it, you then regain Soul Shards equal to it's CR.

Roleplay Suggestions: Playing as a Spirit Hunter, your character is enigmatic and shadowy. They might be driven by a relentless pursuit of power or guided by a grim sense of duty to cleanse the world of malevolent spirits. Others might fear or avoid you due to your dark abilities, or perhaps you keep your true nature concealed, using your powers discreetly to avoid scrutiny. Whatever the case, the path of the Spirit Hunter is one filled with danger and moral ambiguity.

Feel free to develop your character's backstory further, exploring their motivations, alliances, and conflicts they may face in their quest to become the ultimate Spirit Hunter.

Phantom Incarceration

Your soul is split into 10 pieces and you must use 1 piece per CR Level (Rounded Up) to capture a spirit, when you choose to do so it makes a CHA Saving Throw against your Spellcasting DC and on a fail it is captured and you use the Soul Shards equal to it's CR or on a success it is not captured and you cannot reattempt on that Spirit until 24hours have passed (You do not use Soul Shards if it succeeds). You can store them in any arcane focus you'd like but some suggestions include; A Tome, Tattoos, Scrolls, Cravings, Etc. You can summon a spirit using an action and can unsummon it using a bonus action. The spirit cannot be healed except on a short/long rest. You can only have 1 spirit out at one time and it can only stay out for 2 hours before needing a short rest to be summoned again. You have direct control of the spirit but being knocked unconscious, petrified, on death saving throws or incapacitated while you have an active spirit allows it to do a Wis Saving Throw DC 10 + Your Wis Mod + Proficiency and on a success it breaks free and will try to flee or fight back if cornered.

Additional Spell List

Through your pact to the God of the Undead you have earned access to necrotic and deathly spells.

Decayed Soul

Your bond with you Patron has deepened and as such he has granted you further boons to aid you in you hunt. You gain the following benefits;

You are Resistant to Necrotic Damage.
You gain the ability to cast Speak with Dead at will it also does not count towards your prepared spells.
You can bond with your spirits giving them more advantages the deeper the bond.
Immune to the Frightened condition.

The Bond of Man and it's Spirit

You can now interact with your captured spirit increasing it's bond. Not all spirits can be fully bonded with as their mind can decay if they had a weak will in life. What bond level a spirit can reach to is fully dependant on it's CR, higher CR spirits gain the previous benefits as well as their own. Here are the benefits of the bonds;

Bond Level 0 (Forced): You can control the Spirits actions.

Bond Level 1 (Reluctant): Your Spirit gains your proficiency as an AC bonus.

Bond Level 2 (Accepting): Your Spirit gains an damage bonus equal to your proficiency.

Bond Level 3 (Friend): Depending on your Spirits creature type you can ride it or it can assist you in certain tasks.

Bond Level 4 (Partner): The Spirit now has Death Saving Throws.

Bond Level 5 (Soul Bound): Unlock Latent Abilities.

You also gain special bonuses to certain features regarding your Spirit if you have reached a certain Bond Level and meet a Level Criteria. These are;

Level 7, Bond Level 3: For every Bond Level above 3 the Spirit can roam for an extra hour.

Level 8, Bond Level 2: You can use your Spirits senses as your own. This means you can do things such as seeing through their eyes or hearing what they hear.

Level 10, Bond Level 5: You can exchange one of your successful death save slots and give it to your Spirit. This means if you go down you will start with one failed death save. This resets on a long rest.

Level 12, Bond Level 3: Your Spirit can be healed but only to 50% of max hp.

Level 14, Bond Level 3: Your Spirit is now willing to take half of the incoming damage you would receive unless it would result in their death.

Level 16, Bond Level 3: Your Spirit can now be fully healed to max hp.

Level 20, Bond Level 5: Your Spirit now has advantage on any Saving Throws (Except Death Saves) and gains your damage Resistances and Immunities (Magic Items One's Included)

Hunters Crossroads

You've come to your personal crossroads, here you decide how you continue the hunt and your Patron will provide you with the tools needed to succeed. You now get to choose between 3 paths of the hunter, which are the following;

The Curse Slinger - You have been around spirits for so long you've learned how they tick, more importantly you're now able to use the curses that bind them and many more to torture and eviscerate your enemies.

The Gambler - You have been drawn to the cards, roulette and slots all your life, only natural your work follows suit. You can now bet on outcomes and events which can lead to exemplary rewards or horrific consequences.

The Specialist - You are drawn to one type of spirit, maybe a bond only you can understand or an event from your past has shaped your very being. Regardless this has made you a perfectionist when dealing with specific sub categories of Spirits, such as Dragon Spirits, Humanoid Spirits, Beast Spirits etc. This means that when you do capture one of your specialties, the rewards are tremendous.

The Curse Slinger

"May you always live in interesting times"

Some deem you cursed, cursed to walk the thin line of death and undeath. To be surrounded by spirits that want nothing more but to rip you apart. Do you yourself as cursed also? Whether you do or not is irrelevant. All that matters is what these powers have given you and that is power of those who cross you, the ability to fill them with curses until they rip out their own heart or until one of your spirits gets to them. Either way, those who cross this path? Are cursed one way or the other.

You gain the following abilities;

You can use curses after expending a Curse Bullet as a bonus action which you have CHA Mod + Proficiency Bonus + Warlock Level above 10. Curses come in 6 types and have a cost based on their type;

1. Minor Curse (1 Bullet)
2. Curse (2 Bullets)
3. Major Curse (4 Bullets)
4. Malevolent Curse (6 Bullets)
5. Torturous Curse (8 Bullets)
6. Sealed Curse (10 Bullets)

You gain new curses as you level up or by finding and learning them, except for Sealed Curse which can ONLY be learned. You regain Curse Bullets by Long Resting or by Sacrificing a Spirit and gaining Curse Bullets based on their CR. Some  You start with the following curses;

Minor Curse - Fools Curse - The target must make a CHA Saving Throw or gain disadvantage on Saving Throws and Attack Rolls for 3 Rounds.

Minor Curse - Foresight - The Target must make a CHA Saving Throw or you gain Advantage on your next 2 attacks against that target.

Basic Curse - Armour Breaker - The target must make a CHA Saving Throw or it's AC decreases by your Cha Modifier.

Major Curse - Blood Boil - The target must make a CHA or CON Saving Throw or it takes 2d6 damage at the start of it's turns for 4 rounds, it can reattempt the save at the end of it's turns.

Malevolent Curse - Insanity - The target must make a WIS or CHA Saving Throw or it becomes insane, it cannot tell friend or foe apart and will attack the closest target for 1d6 rounds, the target can reattempt the save at the end of it's turn.

You also gain the ability to cast the Remove Spell Curse once per short rest. Please not that although they are called Curse Bullets they don't have to be actual bullets.

The Gambler

"Like in Poker, in the end, you have to go all in."

You are a Casino's best friend, you don't believe in quitting and it has led you to the top and bottom at many points of your life. The same goes when it comes to a fight. You command your spirits and what kind of man doesn't trust himself to where he can't even bet on himself? Go big or go dead.

You gain the following bonuses:

 You have the Roulette of the Damned which activates on the third action you take that day, You roll 1d100, if you roll below 50 (The Threshold)  you activate the Roulette. The DM then rolls 1d100 themselves and reveals the outcome. Each time you don't activate the Roulette the Threshold goes up by 5. Below is the effects of the Roulette based on the DMs d100 roll, it is marked as spoiler just in case you want to keep it a surprise

 

You also gain luck of the house you can use 1 point as a reaction from The Houses Tricks pool (CHA Mod + Proficiency Bonus) and choose one of the following affects;

• Ace in the Sleeves - Flip a coin and if you guess correctly, you can change the target of one of your Roulette of the Damned results (Cannot be used multiple times of the same Roulette of the Damned).
• Double or Nothing - If the results outcomes leads to damage you can flip a coin and on a successful guess you can choose if it does Double or Nothing, guess incorrectly and it either does Double Damage to you or No Damage to your target depending on what the outcome was to be originally.
• Lucky Dice - If the result leads to you performing a saving throw or a target you can roll 1d4 (Before rolling the saving throw) to receive the following effects;
  1 - Double Damage 
  2 - Advantage on Roll
  3 - No Damage
  4 - Disadvantage on Roll
• House's Favourite - You can remove all the negative Roulette of the Damned effects for your next roll but you also guarantee a negative effect on the one after that.
• All In - You flip a coin and if you guess correctly you can choose either and additional effect or to double an existing property of the effect (excludes damage) if you guess incorrectly the DM decides the effect.
• Quitin's for Suckers - Choose one of the following affects then flip a coin and on a success guess you get the positive affect but on a failed guess you get the negative one, here are the affects;
  1 - You turn a failed death save into a successful death save/You get an extra failed death save.
  2 - You remove a negative condition of your choice/You gain an extra negative condition
  3 - You heal yourself for 2d4 + Cha Mod/You take 2d4 + Cha Mod as damage
  4 - You become invisible for 1d4 rounds/Enemies are twice as likely to target you
  5 - Reroll the Roulette of the Damned/Double the next Negative effect on yourself
  6 - Give yourself or an ally advantage on attack rolls for 1d4 rounds/Give yourself or an ally disadvantage on attack rolls (Disadvantage cannot be stacked so if you already have it you must give it to an ally who also doesn't currently have it).
• Royal Flush - This requires you to use ALL of your Houses Tricks pool, You can completely deny the Roulette of the Damned' outcome.

These effects cannot be stacked and are removed after 2 short rests and 1 long rest.

The Specialist

"My specialty is being right when other people are wrong"

You have hunted down a specific type of spirit for a long time, either as a want to face a bigger challenge or to capture something others deemed uncapturable, maybe because it they had done something to you in the past and this is your way of finally taking your revenge either way you are now a Specialist. That means you choose a creature type and a Spirit that is that type will probably not be too happy to see you.

You get the following:

• Choose 1 creature type (You get to choose another at level 16) 
• Know your Enemy - You have advantage on attacks against spirits of that type and they have disadvantage against capture saves.
• Bravado - You can hunt Spirits of up to CR 12 if they are the same type as your chosen type.
• Hunters Sense - You can sense that Spirit type within 120ft of you at all times and can track it down to it's pinpoint location.
• Keep Enemies Closer - You bond faster to the chosen type.
• The Information Weapon - You know the Attacks, Features, DC, HP and AC of Spirits of that type.
• Bound at the Soul - Capturing the chosen type of spirit now only cost half of your Soul Shards rounded down per CR.
• Set Mind - You can use this so that Spirits of the chosen type gain advantage on attacks on targets they have attacked consecutively (at least 1 normal attack) once per short rest.

Unnatural Selection

You have reached the pinnacle of Spirit Hunting, you are now an expert in all things Spirits and have lived much longer that must would have given you credit for. You know gain the following bonuses.

• Your Soul Shards increase to 14
• Marked for Death (Bonus Action) (1 Per Short Rest) - You select a target (must be considered alive) and if you kill that target it makes a Wis Save against your Wis DC (8 + Wis Mod) if it fails it becomes a Spirit on death and you can attempt to capture it. If you fail to kill the target after it's marked the mark remains for 5 days or until you do kill it. (Note that if you fail to capture the target you cannot reattempt but the mark is given back)
• The Enemy of My Enemy (Action) (30ft) - You can attempt to charm up to (Cha Mod) Undead/Spirits once per day. It works just like the Charm Person spell however, this works in combat if their intelligence is below 10.