[INFO POST] Emissary of Darkness Transformation

“There is no reason to fear the things in the dark, if you are one of them.”

Emissaries of Darkness are those who have, willingly or not, entered the service of a greater patron of shadow: Warlocks bound to hags of the Shadowfell, clerics of distant gods, or killers who have always belonged more to alleyways than to open sky. Something has claimed you. Shadows linger at your heels, light falters in your presence, candles dim as you pass, and voices hush without knowing why. The darkness no longer merely surrounds you; it follows you, and with each stage of your transformation, the line between standing in shadow and being shadow grows ever thinner.

Emissary of Darkness Stage I: Disciple of Dusk

“At the threshold between light and night, you learn to live and breathe where the sun begins to fail.”

When you first undergo the Emissary of Darkness transformation, you gain Eyes in the Dark and one additional Stage 1 Boon of your choice. You also gain the Stage I Flaw.

Stage 1 Boon: Eyes in the Dark

You gain darkvision out to 30 feet. If you already have darkvision, its range increases by 30 feet instead. In addition, you can see normally through both magical and nonmagical darkness within 30 feet of you.

Stage 1 Boon: Stab in the Dark

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a weapon attack while either you or the target is in dim light or darkness, you deal extra damage equal to your proficiency bonus × your transformation stage.

Stage 1 Boon: Spreading Darkness
When a creature makes an attack roll, you can use your reaction to conjure darkness (as the Darkness spell) centered on either the attacker or the target. The darkness fills that creature’s space, causing it to be effectively blinded until the end of the current turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your transformation stage.

Stage 1 Flaw: Blinding Light

You cannot see creatures or objects that are in bright light and more than 60 feet away from you.

Emissary of Darkness Stage II: Herald of Shadows

“You no longer wait for darkness to arrive—you move with it, carry it, and let it follow in your wake.”

Upon reaching Stage II of the Emissary of Darkness transformation, you gain one Stage 2 Boon of your choice and the Stage II Flaw.

Stage 2 Boon: Step in Shadows

You can magically teleport as part of your movement to an unoccupied space within your movement speed, provided the destination is in total darkness or within 5 feet of a creature that has a shadow. This teleportation expends movement as normal.

Alternatively, you can use a bonus action to teleport up to 30 feet, following the same restrictions. You can use this feature a number of times per long rest equal to your transformation stage.

Stage 2 Boon: Blades of Shadow

While you are in total darkness, you can use a bonus action to steep your weapons in shadow for 1 minute, gaining the following benefits:

• When you hit a creature with a weapon attack while either you or the target is in total darkness, the attack deals an additional 1d6 necrotic damage.
  

• At the end of each of your turns, you gain the Invisible condition. This invisibility lasts until the end of your next turn or until you affect a creature with an attack or other effect.
  

• If you are subjected to bright light, shadows surge outward from you, turning your space into dim light until the start of your next turn. When this occurs, Blades of Shadow ends at the start of your next turn.

Stage 2 Boon: Engulfing Shadows

When you affect a creature with a spell or class feature, you can choose to cast Darkness centered on that creature (as if cast using a spell slot of a level equal to twice your transformation stage). When cast this way, the spell does not require concentration and ends at the end of your next turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your transformation stage.

Stage 2 Flaw: Damaging Light

Your bond with darkness leaves you vulnerable to radiant power. If you have immunity to radiant damage, you instead have resistance to it. If you have resistance to radiant damage, you lose that resistance. If you have neither immunity nor resistance, you gain vulnerability to radiant damage. If you later gain resistance to radiant damage from any source, you are instead treated as having no resistance.

Emissary of Darkness Stage III: Twilight Shade

“The darkness itself is starting to recognize you as its own.”

When you reach stage 3 of the Emissary of Darkness Transformation, you gain one Stage 3 Boon of your choice and the Stage 3 Flaw.

Stage 3 Boon: True Shade

When you make a weapon attack, you can teleport up to 10 feet to an unoccupied space you can see, either immediately before or immediately after the attack. When you do so, you may apply one poison from your inventory to a weapon or piece of ammunition involved in the attack, following the poison’s normal rules.

Stage 3 Boon: True Twilight

Whenever you cast a spell (such as Darkness) or use a class feature that creates an area of darkness (subject to DM discretion), creatures relying on Truesight or Blindsense cannot see through that darkness. This applies to all darkness created by your Emissary of Darkness features.

Additionally, while you are not prone, you hover a few inches above the ground, and you can see normally through both magical and nonmagical darkness within the range of your darkvision.

Stage 3 Flaw: Alone in the Dark

You have grown accustomed to isolation within shadow, and the presence of nearby hostility unsettles you. Whenever you end your turn within 15 feet of a hostile creature, you take necrotic damage equal to your level. This damage cannot be reduced or prevented in any way. You must then immediately use your reaction, if available, to instinctively defend yourself from the nearest enemy (this reaction has no mechanical effect).

Emissary of Darkness Stage IV: Darkness Incarnate

The boundary between you and the dark has collapsed, leaving only a living absence where a mortal once stood.

When you reach stage 4 of the Emissary of Darkness Transformation, you gain one Stage 4 Boon of your choice and the Stage 4 Flaw.

Stage 4 Boon: Shadow Self

As an action, you split into two shadowed forms. You vanish and immediately reappear in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of your original location. At the same time, a shadowy duplicate of you manifests in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of where you stood.

The duplicate uses your statistics, resources, and equipment, but acts on your initiative and has its own movement and actions. It cannot use reactions. On the turn it appears, it can only take a bonus action and move. When it takes the Attack action, it can make only one attack, regardless of other features. If it takes any damage, it immediately collapses back into you and vanishes.

On subsequent turns, you can use a bonus action to reform the duplicate in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you. Once per turn, you may swap positions with your duplicate as a free action.

The duplicate is permanently destroyed if it is exposed to bright light, if 10 minutes pass since it was summoned, or if it moves more than 1 mile away from you. Once destroyed in this way, it cannot be resummoned.

You can use this feature once per long rest.

Stage 4 Boon: Walking Darkness

As a bonus action, you cast Darkness centered on yourself. This darkness requires no concentration, moves with you, and lasts indefinitely until you dismiss it (no action required).

While active, you can freely reshape, expand, or reduce the darkness, provided it remains entirely within a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on you. You can precisely control its shape, allowing it to envelop or avoid creatures within that area as it moves with you.

When you create this darkness, choose a number of creatures up to your proficiency bonus. Those creatures can see normally within this darkness and within any other darkness created by your Emissary of Darkness features.

For the purposes of Dispel Magic and interactions with magical light, this darkness is treated as an 8th-level spell.

Stage 4 Flaw: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Your mind recoils from proximity. Whenever you end your turn within 15 feet of a hostile creature, you subconsciously blot it out. Until the end of your next turn, you cannot perceive that creature by any means.