You suffer from an extremely rare disease that causes mana to built up inside you. This surplus of mana has to be managed somehow. Once every tenday, you must spent one hour to extract a frail crystal from your body. Crystals are identical to essence of the same tier with one exception: they are not attuned to a character. Failing to do so will result in a forced discharge.
Additionally, you may try to convert attuned creature essence into creature crystals. To do so, make a constitution check against the component DC from the Harvest Table. On a failure, the essence is lost.
Because of this illness, you are extremely sensitive to magic. Anytime you are affected by a spell, be it healing or harmful, you have six seconds to use your action to discharge. Failing or refusing to do so will again result in a forced discharge. Discharging the effects of a spell generates an essence crystal, but this crystal is unusable for any application.
Flavour
The appearance of essence crystals can differ from person to person. For a Tabaxi, it could be a hairball that they cough up. Maybe a Tiefling would break off a piece of their horn that will then regrow. The possibilities are endless.
A creature with mana sickness cannot also be a spellvessel.
Forced Discharge
Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered around you must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 4d6 force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The explosion does not spread around corners.
Creature essence
Creature essence can be harvested from slain enemies. Monsters with a higher CR also drop higher tier essence. You may use the harvesting rules from Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting (HGtMH), with the following modifications:
- The amount of essence that can be harvested per creature becomes 3 (instead of 1)
- The amount of essence required for cooking and crafting becomes 3 (instead of 1)
- Use the harvest table below
Harvest table
| Creature CR | Component DC | Components | Item Rarity | Spell Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-6 | 8 | Frail essence | Uncommon | 1 & 2 |
| 7-11 | 10 | Robust essence | Rare | 3 & 4 |
| 12-17 | 12 | Potent essence | Very Rare | 5 & 6 |
| 18-24 | 14 | Mythic essence | Legendary | 7 & 8 |
| 25+ | 16 | Deific essence | Artifact | 9 |
(If you don't want to use Heliana's rules, allow players to harvest essence using a WIS survival check against the component DC. Monsters harvested this way can only drop 1 essence)
A higher level spell of the same essence tier costs more essence to redirect.
e.g. A level 3 spell costs 1 Robust essence, while a level 4 spell costs 2 Robust essence
Whenever essence is harvested, it immediately attunes to the harvester. When harvesting as a group, you can choose whether the essence goes to the *assessor* or the *carver* (HGtMH). Essence can be used to:
- Redirect a spell on your class' spell list (only for Spellvessels, which you are not)
- Help pay for a Spellvessel Warlock's debt
- Imbue a recipe during cooking (HGtMH)
- Imbue a magic item during crafting (HGtMH)
Doing any of these things immediately consumes the essence. It is not possible to trade essence with others, however, essence crystals can be traded.
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