Dark Mage

You follow Orcus, the vile god of all evil that dwells within the Shadow Realm. There, Orcus teaches his loyal slaves the three paths of dark magic. To use the magic of those paths, Orcus overpowers your nodes by corrupting them. The nodes are channelling points of the flow of magic throughout your body and corrupting them severs your soul from the world soul, enslaving yourself to the shadows. You gain the following benefits:

Corruption

As you choose this Sorcerous Origin at 1st level, one of your limbs (an arm or a leg) becomes visibly corrupted by the powers of the Shadow Realm. When a corrupted body part of yours isn't covered, you make your Charisma (Intimidation) checks with advantage but all other Charisma skill checks with disadvantage, as your unnatural appereance disturbes the simple minds of mortal beings.

Additionally, you step into your first discipline. Choose between the path of Alchemy, Necromancy or Witchcraft. Look up the table of your chosen path at the end of the subclass' description. You gain the additional benefits of the first milestone of the path of your choice.

Corrupted body parts may all look unnatural and disturbing, but their looks differ vastly between dark mages. While necromancers tend to rot away, witchcrafter often take on beastly forms and alchemists may just deform completely. Even though the path of dark magic your character will walk has an influence on the appereance of your corruption, each soul corrupts its body differently, when torn from the world soul.

Shadows’ Grasp

Also at 1st level, you learn that your powers come at a cost. The shadows empowering you feed from vile desires, driven by dark feelings. But some of those feelings, like fear and despair, weaken your willpower. If this happens, the shadows will take advantage of your misery. Whenever you or your DM see fitting, the shadows turn against you. At the beginning of each of your turns, make a DC 15 Charisma Saving Throw. When you fail for the first time, you become restrained, as the shadows wreath your body. You gain one level of exhaustion for each failure. Whenever a hostile creature deals damage to you, the DC is reduced by 1d4. On your third success, the Shadows’ Grasp ends.

Vile Name of Might

At 6th level, another one of your limbs gets corrupted. You reach another milestone in a path of your choosing.

As you have survived against the shadows this long and proved your mental strength, the Orcus grants you a new name of dark might, eradicating your true name. You have advantage on Saving Throws against mind probing and -influencing spells and abilities and immunity to being charmed. Should anyone use your true name as part of an order, you are obligated to follow the instructions, as if you were under the command spell.
Your true name is not the name you were given at birth but the name your soul identified itself with. After its eradication, your true name invokes pain in the minds of lesser beings. It cannot be understood by anyone not already knowing it. Those of lesser willpower who try to comprehend your true name will go mad.

Here are the names of some of the mightiest Dark Mages: Nuodai, Antiox, Marr’Kai, Ferrokis, Daymar

Items of Dark Prowess

At 14th level, you can finally call yourself a master of the dark arts. Your vile power overflows, corrupting your remaining limbs and the nodes within them. You reach a milestone in two Paths of your choosing.

This surge of power also leads to the completion of your very own Dark Mage item. Choose a spellcasting focus, a weapon, a piece of armour or a magic item you are fond of. Choose one of the following properties and add them to the item, if it doesn't already benefit from such a property. A creature needs to be attuned to the item to use any of the properties the item has from this feature.

• You add +2 to any attack and damage rolls made with the item, if it doesn’t already benefit from such a property.
• When you hit with an attack roll using the item (this includes using it as a focus for a spell), you deal an additional 2d4 necrotic damage. You regain hit points equal to the damage dealt with this property.
• Choose a spell that targets a creature, that is of a level no higher than your proficiency bonus and doesn’t consume material components. Once per day while you have your item on your person, you can cast the spell at its lowest level without expending a spellslot. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for the spell. You may change the chosen spell each time you gain a level in this class.
• Having the item on your person grants you a +1 bonus to your AC and Saving Throws.
• Having the item on your person grants you advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.
• Having the item on your person when you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You then have advantage on the first melee attack you make before the end of the turn.
• As an action you can shunt your item into a pocket dimension within the Shadow Realm. You may summon it any time as a bonus action within your space, if you aren’t incapacitated or restrained. You can summon your item to your hand, provided you have a free hand to hold it. If your item is a piece of armor and you aren't wearing any other armor, you can summon the armor donned to your person.

Your item becomes semi-sentient, if it isn’t already. If another creature tries to use your item, it must make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC, as the item will disobey them. On a failed save, the creature obtains a form of madness which they keep until they let go of the item plus a number of days equal to your proficiency bonus × the number of days the creature held onto your item. On its third success the creature learns your true name and if you are not alive anymore, it can stop making saving throws when using the item.

Choosing a new item for this feature, destroys the old one. If the old item is sentient and/or an artefact, it isn’t destroyed, keeps its properties and will eventually seek revenge for you abandoning it. Creating a new Dark Mage item takes you seven days of actively using the newly chosen item.

At 18th level you may choose an additional property for your item.

Immortal Might

At 18th level, your power becomes unobtainable for any mortal being. Your core node, which dwells within your chest, becomes overpowered by the shadows, corrupting the last bit of your body and making you a complete medium of the Shadow Realm. You either reach two milestones in a single path of your choosing or one milestone in two different paths.

You stop aging and your age cannot be changed against your will. You cannot die of old age and won't suffer of its frailty.

As an action you can open a portal to the Shadow Realm within 5 feet of you, as if created by the Gate spell. The Shadow Realm containing a distorted version of every plane it borders to, the portal leads to the exact same location in the Shadow Realm as the location it was created on in another plane.
If you use this feature within the Shadow Realm, the portal leads to the plane Orcus wants you to spread his influence on. This will usually be your native plane. The portal lasts for one minute or until your concentration ends (as if you were concentrating on a spell). Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest to use it again.

Path of Alchemy

Dark Mages who follow the path of alchemy use their knowledge of the shadows to imbibe them through potions and concoctions. The path of alchemy is a path of devotion and patience, which is walked by those of undoubtable faith towards their dark god.

1st Milestone

You gain Proficiency in Alchemist's Supplies. Over the course of a short rest, you can magically turn one vial of mundane water into one of the following potions, using Alchemist's Supplies. You gain knowledge of producing additional potions as you gain milestones in this path.

1st Milestone	Potion of Healing, Basic Poison
2nd Milestone	Potion of Poison, Potion of Resistance (any)
3rd Milestone	Potion of Greater Healing, Elixir of Health
4th Milestone	Potion of Superior Healing, Potion of Longevity

A maximum number of these potions equal to your proficiency bonus can exist simultaneously. Should you create any further potion, one of your already existing potions turns back into water, having no further effects but tasting foul when imbibed.

Potions crafted with this feature look, smell and taste foul like a witch’s concoction. Most merchants won’t trade any of your potions and there is a high chance that they will accuse you of witchery.

2nd Milestone

You can cast any sorcerer spell you know as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.

Your understanding of the magic in liquids increases, making you able to produce a basic magic potion. Brewing such a potion takes 2 hours of work and costs 50 gp per level of the spell you want to store in it, as you require the appropriate material components. You must have access to your Alchemist's Supplies for the whole duration.
A creature can cast a spell with the ritual tag, that doesn't require concentration, on the potion, which is absorbed and doesn't take effect until the potion is released from its vial. When taking effect, the ritual uses the spell save DC of the creature originally casting it.
As an action, a creature can pour the potion onto a space within 5 ft of itself or hurl it up to 20 feet, shattering the vial on impact. A potion containing a ritual with a range of touch must cover an applicable and willing target and a potion containing a ritual with a range of self must be imbibed. In either case, the ritual takes effect immediately after taking this action, originating from the place or creature the potion was released on.
A maximum number of these potions equal to your Charisma modifier can exist simultaneously. Should you create any further potion, one of your already existing potions turns into water, having no further effects but tasting foul when imbibed.

3rd Milestone

You become an oracle of Orcus, chosen to spread his dark prophecies. While brewing a special potion over the course of one hour, you can spend 5 sorcery points to cast either Divination or Scrying without requiring material components or expending a spell slot. After the hour has past, shadows pour out of your cauldron, forming the answers you seek.

Alternatively you may put a part of a creature, an object taken from a specific place you can name or a magical object inside your concoction. If you do so, the shadows coming from your cauldron will show you information about the creature, place or object as if you had cast both Identify and Legend Lore, without the thing required to be of legendary importance.

The shadows show what Orcus wants his Dark Mage to see. Sometimes there will be no information, vague information or even false information, as Orcus may test his children.

You must finish a short or long rest, before you can use this feature again.

4th Milestone

You step into the boarders of becoming a Great Hag. You can craft a Hag’s Eye out of the eye of a humanoid creature. Doing so requires one hour of uninterrupted work and the use of your Alchemist’s Supplies. The Hag’s Eye looks like a gem but looking at it with true sight, reveals the former human eye trapped within the stone. You can see through the Hag’s Eye as if it were yours, blinding one of your own eyes for as long as you look through the Hag’s Eye.

As your concoctions become stronger, you are no longer able to control the power of the shadows within them alone. Building a coven with two or more other spellcasters with the ability to cast at least one 9th level spell, you may cast one of the following spells without requiring material components other than your Alchemist’s Supplies and with a range of 10 miles:

Contagion, Control Weather, Create Undead, Earthquake, Gate, Geas, Hollow, Storm of Vengeance, Summon Greater Demon

The spell is cast at its lowest level and takes at least one hour or the casting time of the spell to cast, whichever is longer. If the spell is of 5th level or lower, each creature of the coven may cast the spell individually. If the spell is of a higher level, the whole coven casts it together, in which case the spell uses the highest spell attack bonus, spell save DC and spellcasting ability score among the coven.

The coven gains a number of points of exhaustion equal to the spell's level, which they distribute among them as they wish. If they do not come to terms about the distribution, the casting fails.

After you use this feature, 7 days have to pass until you can use it again.

Path of Necromancy

Dark Mages following the path of necromancy use their supreme control to assert their influence over the dead and even the living. The path of necromancy is a path of the cool minded and certain, which is walked by those letting go of all of their emotions to resist the urges of the shadow realm.

1st Milestone

Thriving towards unparalleled spellmastery, necromancers add spells from other casters to their repretoir, expanding the capabilities of dark magic. When you find a spell of 1st level or higher, that is not on the sorcerer spell list, but is of a level of which you already have sorcerer spells, you can adapt it to be cast by a dark magic user. The spell can be of written form or be taught to you by a willing creature able to cast the spell.
For each level of the spell, you must spend 2 hours of training and 50 gp to learn it. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it. Once you have spent this time and money, the spell counts as a sorcerer spell for you and doesn't count against your number of spells known. You can have a maximum number of spells known this way equal to your proficiency bonus. To learn any more spells with this feature, you must replace one of the spells you already learned with this feature.
A spell on a spell scroll can be learned just as spells in spellbooks can be learned. When you learn a spell from a spell scroll, you must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. If the check succeeds, you successfully learn the spell. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.

2nd Milestone

If you use a spell to animate a corpse, you may ignore racial restrictions. Also you may raise a corpse as any fitting undead race (for example you may turn a humanoid into a vampire or raise the skeleton of a minotaur). You can only do so, if you had the opportunity to examine an intact body of a creature with the same race as the corpse and an intact body of the type of creature you want the corpse to become. Examining bodies destroys them, making them unable to be raised as undead. The total CR of creatures under your control, who were raised with application of this feature, can’t exceed your sorcerer level.

Wizards adapting spells which raise undead to be used by mortals, put restrictions upon the races who can be raised for a reason. If you lift those restrictions off a spell, an undead raised by it makes a Charisma saving throw against your sorcerer spell save DC. On a success, it breaks free from your command, able to act on its own. The DM takes control over such an undead.
Intelligent undead are even harder to control. If the undead has an Intelligence of 8 or higher, it has advantage on the saving throw. If it fails the saving throw and has an Intelligence of 12 or higher, it can repeat the saving throw at the end of every hour until it succeeds and breaks free.

3rd Milestone

As a master of necromancy, no one compares with you when it comes down to controlling others. As an action on your turn, you may take over a charming, mind influencing or mind controlling spell or ability from another source than yourself. If the source is a creature that is actively controlling the spell or ability, you make a spellcasting ability check, contested by the creature's spellcasting ability check. If the creature is passively in control of the spell or ability, you are contested by its spell save DC. If an object is the source of the spell or ability, the DC is determined by the DM. If you succeed, you gain control over the spell or ability. You may change its effects, as if you were casting it, without extending the remaining duration. If you fail, you cannot use this feature on the same spell or ability again until 24 hours have passed.
You can only use this feature on one spell or ability at a time. Using this feature again while already asserting control over a spell or ability, makes you lose control over it.

4th Milestone

You step into the boarders of lich-hood. Barely alive anymore, your powerful dark magic keeps your deceasing body moving. You can't be healed by other means than resting or your own spells and features anymore and you are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. Furthermore you don't fall unconscious when you are reduced to zero hit points and you don't make any death saving throws. While being reduced to zero hit points, add up all excess damage until you regain any hitpoints. If the damage exceeds your hit point maximum, you die.

Path of Witchcraft

Dark Mages following the path of witchcraft use their superiority over the shadows to assert their dominance over others. The path of witchcraft is a path of temper and power, which is walked by those knowing no failure, eradicating everything in their way with indomitable, magical prowess.

1st Milestone

Making use of your corrupted flesh you gain the following benefits:

• You may use your overpowered nodes as a spellcasting focus for your sorcerer spells.
• You can use your Charisma modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making Strength checks and Strength saving throws using your corrupted body parts. When you reach level 14 in this class, your carrying capacity is determined by your Charisma score instead of your Strength score.
• When you attack with a weapon you are holding in a corrupted hand or when you make an unarmed strike with a corrupted body part, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength, for the attack and damage rolls. When you reach level 6 in this class, you can attack twice with a corrupted body part instead of once when taking the attack action on your turn.

2nd Milestone

You gain the following Metamagic option:
Overpowered Spell. When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 3 sorcery points, to add your Charisma Modifier to the damage against one of the spell's targets. You can use Overpowered Spell multiple times on the same spell and even if you already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell.

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a meele weapon attack, you may immediatelly cast a harmful spell with a casting time of one action. The spell's effects only harm the creature you've hit. The creature is hit automatically by the first spell attack roll the spell requires. The creature fails it's first saving throw against the spell automatically.

Additionally, you gain the ability to tap the life force of a living creature. As a bonus action, you can deal a number of d4 necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus to a willing and living creature within 5 feet of you (including yourself). This damage cannot be prevented and reduces the hit point maximum of that creature by the damage taken until it finishes a long rest. You gain sorcery points equal to your proficiency bonus.
You can use this property a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier and regain all expended uses after finishing a long rest.

3rd Milestone

A gloomy aura seems to surround you, since the shadows you gather inside yourself start to pour out of your body. You begin to understand, that your body is nothing more but a vessel, keeping the true strength of your soul trapped inside. You can add your Charisma modifier to your AC.

As a bonus action, you can extend your soul to surround your body. While in this form, you gain resistance to all damage, but you are vulnerable to psychic damage. This form ends if you become unconscious or you may end it at the end of each of your turns.
Your extended soul is visible to creatures that can see into the ethereal plane and creatures having true sight.
You can reach for the souls of other creatures while in this form. Make an unarmed strike against a creature within 15 feet range, using your Charisma modifier. On a hit, you deal 2d8 + your Charisma modifier psychic damage.
You are also able to grasp objects and creatures with your soul. To do so, make a normal grapple attack with a range of 15 feet, using your Charisma modifier instead of Strength. On subsequent turns, you may use an attack to tighten your grasp on a target grappled by your soul. Doing so, the target takes 2d8 + your Charisma modifier force damage.
After one minute of using this aura, you must make a DC 5 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, you become restrained and you must continue to make saving throws against the Shadows’ Grasp. On a successful save nothing happens, but you must repeat the saving throw after each minute of using the aura with the DC increasing by 5. The DC resets on a long rest.

4th Milestone

You step into the boarders of archdemon-hood. You are now able to become a warlock's patron. As your intuition of the shadows has grown more potent than the one of most dark mages, you nearly become one with them. As an action, you can spend 5 sorcery points to draw the shadows into your world, making the Shadow Realm overlap reality in a 60 feet radius around you. The area seemingly becomes a twisted, nightmarish landscape. Each creature within this radius becomes vulnerable to damage you deal. The aura lasts for one minute or until your concentration ends (as if you were concentrating on a spell).