The Face-Bound

 People couldn’t help but be curious of the traveling eldritch with the mask that covered half his face, but not the side that had the scars. Unbeknownst to them, the background of this person was equally contradictory. Though he was considered to have abandoned his family, every action he performed was selflessly for it.

The muted, terrible keening sound leaked from underneath the stage. It poured out of the girl beneath it, telling a story of utter humiliation and crushed dreams from those oblivious to her hard work. Yet also a desperate want to prove them wrong. A scrap of the theater curtain tore itself free and smothered her cries, to anyone else looking like a torturous and possessed act. But to the girl, it oddly brought comfort.

A soldier knelt on the blood-stained ground, shoulders trembling with the pain of his newly marred face alongside the knowledge that everything he’d fought for – the crux of his existence – had been a lie. Roaring, his vow made in despondent fury unconsciously began to salvage the strewn bits of his identity; merging with the debris of the battlefield before falling at his side as a plaited mask.

 

The Face-Bound

Most warlocks are bound to another entity. A Face-Bound warlock is uniquely separated from the rest of their class by how they are their own masters – In a way at least. Some circumstance caused these few souls to have lost a major part of their identity, often accompanied with a scarred face. Through sheer force of will, a pact is unwittingly made with themselves; their separated piece taking the form of a unique mask they must wear it to be complete, covering more of their face the more severe their loss. As this pact is based on identity, the Face-Bound is constantly driven to build on who they are and become more, never stagnant. As such, the adventuring life almost always claims a Face-Bound sooner or later.

 

Pact Boon – Alternate Pact of the Chain:

The weight and presence of the mask to a Face-Bound’s self makes it impossible to forge a bond with a familiar due to the strain of an already spliced persona. As an alternative to this pact, the mask fills in the place of the familiar. The find familiar spell/ritual will instead conjure your mask from where ever it is back to you, restoring it anew with all powers intact.

When you cast this spell, your mask will return looking the same as it was when you lost it. If you perform this spell at a level different from when the mask was displaced, or if a significant change or addition of the character has occurred since the last ritual, then the appearance of your mask might be slightly altered; refer to your DM for this.

Additionally, when you do your Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your mask to make an attack of its own, dealing the same amount of psychic damage as it would if it had been forcefully taken, though now dealing damage with the d4 die.

 

Expanded spell list

The mask 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.

          1st: disguise self, shield

            2nd: alter self, locate object

            3rd: bestow curse, slow

            4th: confusion, phantasmal killer

            5th: modify memory, telepathic bond

Only One

Only a Bound can wear their mask. At the 1st level, anyone else who tries to wear or forcefully take (or is hit with) the mask receives 1d6 psychic damage per level, ignoring resistance or immunity. You also receive psychic damage equal to your level.

Changing Perspective

Your sense of awareness as a Bound can pass beyond your own being. As you reach different levels, you can spend an action to give yourself one of the following kinds of vision for up to eight hours. You cannot use this feature again until you have taken a long rest.

1st) Your natural darkvision range doubles. If you do NOT have darkvision, you gain 60 feet of darkvision.

6th) You gain 60-feet blindsight.

10th) You gain 30-feet truesight.

Through Another’s Eyes

The mask is a part of you. As you grow in your power and your bond strengthens, you become able to connect with it even when it is beyond your physical reach. At 10th level, you can spend and action to see, smell, and hear through your mask to the area it is at, as well as perform spells from your Face-Bound spell-list that will manifest their effects at whatever place it lies. Doing this leaves you unaware of your own surroundings. Once you dispel the effect, you cannot use this feature again until after a short or long rest.

Sense of Self

Once you achieve 14th level, your personal sense of identity has developed to where the notion of your psyche being magically swayed or imposed upon by another becomes laughable. At this level, you can spend an action to gain resistance to being charmed or frightened for 1 minute (6 rounds) whether you are wearing your mask or not. If you succeed on your saving throw and are wearing your mask, you can also call out the name of creature that can hear you and end an effect that is causing them to be charmed or frightened.