Incandescent Soul Warlock

You have forged a connection to the fundamental spark of life. It fills you with its fierce defiance and tenacity in the face of hardship. The flame that burns within you shifts between creation and destruction, capable of both nourishing and consuming. This duality of light threatens to split your soul and you must always seek to balance your contradicting power to heal or to incinerate. You see yourself as a beacon in the night, a small light in a vast darkness, and are particularly antagonistic towards eldritch or abyssal forces that seek the extinction of life as well as those that claim to control or oversee fate.

In general, Incandescent Soul Warlocks lean away from lawful and evil alignments. Warlocks of this subclass show great tenacity, resolve, and determination in the face of hardship. They want to help those around them, but their attempts to do so may end up causing far more harm. They show little fear even when fear is called for and pay more attention to the needs of others than themselves, an attitude that can land them in grave danger. They can also endanger themselves through pride, both by defying authority even when they know it would be wisest to stay silent and by their simple inability to resist a challenge. Though they have the strength of will to win through a campaign of attrition, they may have trouble seeing the larger picture when faced with immediate problems.

As an Incandescent Soul Warlock grows in power, so too do they grow in mastery of the duality of creation and destruction. Powerful Warlocks understand when to harm and when to heal, when to back down and when to stand fast. They reconcile the dual nature of their abilities as different expressions of the same underlying principle. They see how their own nature relates to the cycle of death & rebirth and understand that balance between these forces preserves existence even as that tension drives eternal change. But no matter their power an Incandescent Soul Warlock has little time for fate. They’ve often been underestimated and have achieved deeds others declared impossible. Faced with a challenge, their thoughts turn to surmounting it.

This class was created alongside the custom Pact of the Torch.

Patron

Your magic comes to you through an avatar of the spark of creation, often a greater phoenix. You may have gained this creature’s favor directly by aiding it in a time of need or journeying great distances to find it. You may have survived an overpowering foe or against overwhelming odds, drawing it to your stubborn refusal to lay down and die. Or you may have shown great compassion where it was least expected, displaying the strength to keep a gentle heart despite a world that tried to crush it.

Pact Abilities

Healing Light (1st level)

You begin to comprehend the flow of energy and life. You gain a pool of healing dice (d6s equal to 1 + your warlock level) that you can spend as a bonus action to heal one creature you can see within 60 feet. The maximum number of dice you can spend at once equals your Charisma modifier (minimum one die). Roll the dice and restore a number of hit points equal to the total. This pool replenishes after a long rest.

Enduring Flame (6th level)

The fierce light that fills you refuses to fade. Once per long rest if you would be reduced to 0 hp you can instead spring back to your feet with a burst of brilliant light. You regain half your maximum hit points and may immediately stand up. All hostile creatures within 30 feet of you are pushed back 5 feet and must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution save or be blinded until the end of your next turn.

Tempered Light (10th level)

You are adept at balancing the power of light between creation and destruction. You have resistance to fire and radiant damage and your pool of healing dice changes from a number of d6s to a number of d8s equal to 1 + your warlock level.

Once per day as a bonus action when hit by fire or radiant damage you may choose to take full damage instead of half, so long as this damage would not reduce you to 0 hp. If you do, expend three dice from your healing pool and choose up to two creatures you can see within 60 feet. They heal a number of hit points equal to the damage you take this way.

Phoenix Rising (14th level)

You take a spark of your patron’s essence into your own soul. Once per day you can use your action to transform into an Incandescent Phoenix. In this form you have the abilities and actions of a phoenix, but can still cast spells as normal. Your spells still require verbal (but not somatic) components and consume any required materials over 5 GP. You retain your Intelligence, Charisma, and Wisdom scores but otherwise take on the stats of your new form. In phoenix form you retain your current languages and acquire Primordial. Any equipment you are carrying other than spell components melds with your new form and reappears when you revert.

Aurora's Grace (17th level)

(optional feature, replaces Mystic Arcanum (9th-level))

You are energy, and energy cannot be destroyed. If you would die for any reason, you can choose instead to collapse into a floating knot of searing light six inches across. All your equipment collapses in with you. You cannot take any actions in this form and must incubate within for at least one full round. On your turn you may use your bonus action to explode back to life. You return with all your equipment, regain half your maximum hit points, and may immediately stand up. All hostile creatures within 30 feet take 4d6 fire damage and 4d6 radiant damage and are stunned until the end of your turn. All previous magical effects and status conditions are removed as if you were returned by True Resurrection. Once used, you cannot use this ability again until three dawns have passed.

The knot of energy is impervious to damage and cannot be moved. If it is in range of an antimagic field, it does not vanish, but you cannot emerge until it is removed from the field. Your soul rests within this knot and is vulnerable to effects that trap or damage it such as Soul Cage. A being that attempts to affect your soul in this form must first succeed on a DC 20 Charisma check to do so.

Light Unending (20th level)

(optional feature: replaces Eldritch Mastery) 

You understand the unity of energy, light, and life. You no longer age and are immune to magical aging effects. You are immune to fire and radiant damage and can now stay transformed into your phoenix form for up to 8 hours.

Pact Magic

Expanded Spell List

The following spells are added to the Warlock spell list for you:

• cantrip: sacred flame, light
• 1st: burning hands, cure wounds
• 2nd: flaming sphere, lesser restoration
• 3rd: daylight, revivify
• 4th: fire shield, wall of fire
• 5th: flame strike, greater restoration

You automatically learn the cantrips as bonus spells in addition to your existing cantrips. Your DM can choose to grant you the higher-level spells as bonus spells; otherwise they only expand the pool of spells you can choose to learn.

Mystic Arcanum

When choosing your Mystic Arcanum spells, the following spells are added to the Warlock spell list for you:

• 6th: heal, sunbeam
• 7th: fire storm, regenerate
• 8th: sunburst, incendiary cloud
• 9th: meteor swarm

At 17th level you may choose the optional feature Aurora's Grace rather than a 9th-level spell. At 20th level you may choose the optional feature Light Unending rather than the standard Warlock class feature Eldritch Mastery.

Expanded Eldritch Invocations

In addition to the usual eldritch invocations, the Incandescent Soul Warlock has access to the following:

Focused Light (5th level): When healing another creature using a Warlock spell slot, instead of rolling dice, use the maximum possible number for each die.

Solar Wind (12th level): Once per long rest you may expend a Warlock spell slot to instead cast fly at 4th level. Creatures affected by this spell appear to fly on wings of spectral flame.

Healing Blaze (15th level): Your pool of healing dice becomes d10s equal to 1 + your warlock level.

Incandescent Overdrive (17th level): While in phoenix form, as a bonus action, you can invoke Overdrive mode. When you do your phoenix form shines even brighter and appears to be made of pure light. In this state you gain the following benefits:

• Creatures immune to fire and/or radiant damage treat your attacks as if they only had resistance.
• You are immune to radiant damage.
• Friendly creatures within 120 feet of you gain fire resistance
• All darkness within 120 feet of you, including magical darkness, is dispelled
• You now shed bright light for 120 feet and dim light for an additional 60 feet

You can remain in Overdrive mode for a maximum number of rounds equal to half your Warlock level rounded down. Releasing Overdrive is a bonus action. When you leave this state, for every two rounds spent in Overdrive, you gain a level of exhaustion.

Once this ability has been used, it can't be used again until a number of dawns equal to the number of turns spent in Overdrive have passed.

 

Character Creation

These descriptions and tables provide a jumping-off point for fleshing out your Incandescent Soul warlock’s character and backstory. While this section has many options to explore, remember that it’s all just a guideline. You always have the final say in who your character is.

You may not have been born with your power, but some sympathy with your soul drew your patron to you in the first place. Roll on this table to find personality traits that gained your patron’s attention:

1. You bear a massive scar from an injury no one believed you would survive - no one but you.
2. Defiance drives you. You'll die happy if it means you keep your pride.
3. You find it hard to hold a grudge on your own behalf, but very easy to do so on behalf of others.
4. Plants clinging to stone, fire burning down, even pests struggling in a trap you yourself set - you can't bear to see a life extinguished when it's fighting to hold on.
5. Others look to you for hope in the darkest of situations.
6. Your curiosity is nearly a compulsion, driving you to illuminate and make safe the unknown.
7. You know you can't be redeemed - but if redemption were certain, where would be the virtue in trying?
8. Your stubbornness has gotten you into trouble before, and it's going to again.

At some point in your life your actions called forth the patron who forged your pact. Roll on this table to start thinking about that inciting moment:

1. This isn't the end. You won't let it be the end. This isn't how you die.
2. You took the place of a loved one called to a dangerous ordeal.
3. How could this all have happened? You were only trying to help!
4. Eldritch corruption drove the rest of your people away, but you stood fast. There has to be a way!
5. You went into the dark to show there was nothing to fear, only to discover a much greater truth.
6. They may be your enemy, but they're hurt and afraid. You can't just leave them to die.
7. You defied a corrupt authority knowing it would mean severe punishment. You bow to no one.
8. Sometimes all you can do is live to fight another day. You'll return to finish this - no matter how long it takes.

The arcane power your pact imbues you with leaves its mark on your mind and body. Roll on these tables for physical and mental signs of your patron's favor:

1. You feel compelled to heal the injured even when you know you have finite resources.
2. You hold out hope that people can change long after others have given up.
3. Restless energy periodically surges through you, driving you to move regardless of destination.
4. You often forget that fire hurts people. It's especially hard to remember that it can hurt you.
5. Transformation fascinates you. You could spend hours watching fire consume its fuel or water erode obstacles.
6. Material goods are so unwieldy and overrated. They all fall apart eventually anyways.
7. Uncertainty catches you in darker moments. Can magic that causes such pain really do any good?
8. You have difficulty adhering to any religion. What right does some god have to tell you what to do?

1. Lights brighten and the air heats around you when you feel angry or threatened.
2. Your eye color has changed to a muted gold.
3. Use of your power slowly bleaches your hair to blond or white regardless of any attempt to dye it back.
4. Going days without direct sunlight makes you grouchy and lethargic, but warm naps fill you with energy.
5. Injured or scared creatures instinctively seek you out.
6. When you cast powerful spells the faint suggestion of fiery wings swirls around you.
7. Those you heal sense your power as a surge of intense, near-painful heat.
8. Your voice sometimes carries an otherworldly echo, as if another, stranger voice speaks alongside you.

Healing Light

Enduring Flame

Tempered Light

Phoenix Rising

Expanded Mystic Arcanum

You can choose from additional spells for your Mystic Arcanum.