Im running CoS and one of my players wants to use his own homebrew creation for a wizard.
It is very soul focused, which fits his backstory. But, Im thinking Strahd would sense him astral planing or stealing soul matter.
Am I just overthinking this? I like the creativitey, but I dont want to hinder or advantage too much
Thanks
Astral form
Due to your experimentation at level 2 your soul becomes less tethered to your phisical body but still bound to the prime material plane. once per short rest you can manifest your soul as a asteral projection this projection is you but as a ghost you can move in any direction by willing it at 30ft per round once beyond 60 ft you connection to your life force starts to wither as your soul is drawn to the after life you take 1D4 force damage per round until within 60 ft of your body you can interact with the enviroment gain no benefit from any equiped items, can pass through walls cannot cast spells If your asteral form takes damage it disapates and you immediately wake up.
when in this state your body falls to the ground if standing and is in a state of unconscious until your ghostly form returns to it and is subject to said condition.
you can maintian this state over night however maintaining conciousness is tiring every 48 hour take 1 point of exhaustion and you can starve to death taking 1d12 points of damage per day after the first 24 hours if you dont consume food.
6th level
Soul Vessel
Starting at 6th level, you can perform a ritual 8 hours long and in your astral form and a gem of any size creating a soul vessel that stores ambient soul matter. You can benefit from the gem yourself or give it to another creature. A creature gains a benefit of your choice as long as the vessel is in the creature’s possession. When you create the vessel, choose the benefit from the following options:
Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet
Proficiency in Constitution saving throws
Resistance to phisical damage overcome by magic
cast cure wounds healing the posseser of the soul gem for 1D8+INT modifier +1D8 per charge spent
cast speak with dead and ask up to 5 questions per charge expended
the soul gem has 3 charges that replenish 1 charge per short rest or all charges with a long rest
if the soul vessel is lost or stolen you can make another one performing the same ritual If you create a new soul vessel, the previous one ceases to function.
10th level
Attuned to souls
your time spent amongs souls and soul matter has taught you some things about the undead you gain resistance to necrotic damage and can see out into the etherial plane out to 30 ft and cannot become suprised by undead
At level 10
14th level
imprison the soul
at level 14 you have mastered the study of soulmatter. You add soul cage into your spellbook and can cast it once per long rest without useing a spell slot if you have it prepared.
If you cast the spell this way you can also use the trapped soul a additional number of times equal to your INT modifier
if you already have soul cage in your spell book you pick a different spell to add to you book of 6th level or lower.
I would change the name and description of the astral stuff since that has specific meaning in D&D which is not being used. What you describe is closer to ethereal, which is good because Borovia is cut off from the astral plane.
I doubt Strahd would sense the manipulation of souls since he doesn't seem to have any particular ability to sense that sort of thing. He might notice it from observing the party though, and in that case he might be particularly interested in the character. Other forces in Borovia might sense the soul manipulation though.
I give no opinion on the game balance of this subclass.
The Dark Powers, the godlike entities that keep Strahd trapped as their plaything, would absolutely notice "ambient soul matter" walking out the door in a closed system where at least half the NPCs don't even have souls. So you should definitely do something with that. Also, the "can't be surprised by the undead" thing at level 10 is going to deprive you of a lot of jump-scares in Barovia. I'd come up with something different for that. Outside of that, erase the bit where he wakes up once his ethereal form takes damage. If he wants to play ghost, the ghosts get to play with him. The first time he goes scouting around in the Border Ethereal feeling invulnerable and suddenly he realizes he's not alone in there and his friends can't help him, you won't have to worry about balance anymore.
Also, the "can't be surprised by the undead" thing at level 10 is going to deprive you of a lot of jump-scares in Barovia.
If you take it as "it is impossible for undead to sneak up and ambush the party" yea, it'll remove those. If you take it as "can always act on the first turn of combat when fighting undead" you still get those scares, he just reacts faster to them.
Astral form (which really should be called spectral or ethereal form) does not mention requiring an action for anything (or even needing to be your turn). Also, you return to your body when you take damage, but you take damage by moving 60 ft away. Also also, there are already rules for hunger and exhaustion. But at worst this is 60 feet of X-ray vision once per short rest with no time limit, and that is too powerful at level 2 (or even level 12 for that matter).
Soul vessel is clearly just trying to be a better transmuter's stone, and even copied the coveted CON saves proficiency from it, then took it further by giving the Wizard self healing (also, it doesn't need to describe how cure wounds works).
Attuned to souls combines aspects of the necromancer's level 10 feature (swapped can't lower HP with can't surprise) and combined with the diviner's 10th level feature.
The only problem I have with imprison the soul is that 6 extra exploitations in addition to slotless casting seems a little over kill.
I would require much more tuning before allowing this in any campaign, let alone one that focuses on undead.
I am unfamiliar with handling large homebrew changes. But the ability to cast a decently high level spell, Soul Cage for free once a day (especially since it has 6 uses after casting) could be a bit too powerful to have as just a class feature. Receiving Soul Cage for free in the spellbook is easily alright. And perhaps being able to always have that spell prepared, but still needing to use a spell slot to cast it would probably be fine too.
DxJxC mentioned the food and water situation which I was ready to tell you about. I'll go into it with a little detail and list the parts of the Player's Handbook (PHB) to read for full descriptions. Also, Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGtE) has the simple rules for sleeping. All this in consideration, someone who tries to, as you put it:
you can [maintain] this state over night however maintaining [consciousness] is tiring every 48 hour take 1 point of exhaustion and you can starve to death taking 1d12 points of damage per day after the first 24 hours if you [don't] consume food.
A character can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + his or her Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, a character automatically suffers one level of exhaustion.
* * *
A character needs one gallon of water per day, or two gallons per day if the weather is hot. A character who drinks only half that much water must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of the day. A character with access to even less water automatically suffers one level of exhaustion at the end of the day.
* * *
If the character already has one or more levels of exhaustion, the character takes two levels in either case.
PHB - Ch 8: Adventuring - The Environment - Food and Water
Whenever you end a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion.
It becomes harder to fight off exhaustionif you stay awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a long rest. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.
XGtE - Ch 2: Dungeon Master's Tools - Sleep - Going without a Long Rest
In any case, this staying outside the body thing would quickly pile up the exhaustion points which apply heavy penalties that end in death. So they might not ever want to use that ability for such a long time.
The spot in the books that lists the levels of exhaustion:
PHB - Appendix A: Conditions - Exhaustion
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Good luck and may you roll 20's when you need them and 1's when you need a laugh. - myself
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Im running CoS and one of my players wants to use his own homebrew creation for a wizard.
It is very soul focused, which fits his backstory. But, Im thinking Strahd would sense him astral planing or stealing soul matter.
Am I just overthinking this? I like the creativitey, but I dont want to hinder or advantage too much
Thanks
Astral form
Due to your experimentation at level 2 your soul becomes less tethered to your phisical body but still bound to the prime material plane. once per short rest you can manifest your soul as a asteral projection this projection is you but as a ghost you can move in any direction by willing it at 30ft per round once beyond 60 ft you connection to your life force starts to wither as your soul is drawn to the after life you take 1D4 force damage per round until within 60 ft of your body you can interact with the enviroment gain no benefit from any equiped items, can pass through walls cannot cast spells If your asteral form takes damage it disapates and you immediately wake up.
when in this state your body falls to the ground if standing and is in a state of unconscious until your ghostly form returns to it and is subject to said condition.
you can maintian this state over night however maintaining conciousness is tiring every 48 hour take 1 point of exhaustion and you can starve to death taking 1d12 points of damage per day after the first 24 hours if you dont consume food.
6th level
Soul Vessel
Starting at 6th level, you can perform a ritual 8 hours long and in your astral form and a gem of any size creating a soul vessel that stores ambient soul matter. You can benefit from the gem yourself or give it to another creature. A creature gains a benefit of your choice as long as the vessel is in the creature’s possession. When you create the vessel, choose the benefit from the following options:
the soul gem has 3 charges that replenish 1 charge per short rest or all charges with a long rest
if the soul vessel is lost or stolen you can make another one performing the same ritual If you create a new soul vessel, the previous one ceases to function.
10th level
Attuned to souls
your time spent amongs souls and soul matter has taught you some things about the undead you gain resistance to necrotic damage and can see out into the etherial plane out to 30 ft and cannot become suprised by undead
At level 10
14th level
imprison the soul
at level 14 you have mastered the study of soulmatter. You add soul cage into your spellbook and can cast it once per long rest without useing a spell slot if you have it prepared.
If you cast the spell this way you can also use the trapped soul a additional number of times equal to your INT modifier
if you already have soul cage in your spell book you pick a different spell to add to you book of 6th level or lower.
I would change the name and description of the astral stuff since that has specific meaning in D&D which is not being used. What you describe is closer to ethereal, which is good because Borovia is cut off from the astral plane.
I doubt Strahd would sense the manipulation of souls since he doesn't seem to have any particular ability to sense that sort of thing. He might notice it from observing the party though, and in that case he might be particularly interested in the character. Other forces in Borovia might sense the soul manipulation though.
I give no opinion on the game balance of this subclass.
The Dark Powers, the godlike entities that keep Strahd trapped as their plaything, would absolutely notice "ambient soul matter" walking out the door in a closed system where at least half the NPCs don't even have souls. So you should definitely do something with that. Also, the "can't be surprised by the undead" thing at level 10 is going to deprive you of a lot of jump-scares in Barovia. I'd come up with something different for that. Outside of that, erase the bit where he wakes up once his ethereal form takes damage. If he wants to play ghost, the ghosts get to play with him. The first time he goes scouting around in the Border Ethereal feeling invulnerable and suddenly he realizes he's not alone in there and his friends can't help him, you won't have to worry about balance anymore.
If you take it as "it is impossible for undead to sneak up and ambush the party" yea, it'll remove those. If you take it as "can always act on the first turn of combat when fighting undead" you still get those scares, he just reacts faster to them.
Thanks so much for the feedback
Good to know I wasn't completely off, just have to fine tune some of the mechanics
Astral form (which really should be called spectral or ethereal form) does not mention requiring an action for anything (or even needing to be your turn). Also, you return to your body when you take damage, but you take damage by moving 60 ft away. Also also, there are already rules for hunger and exhaustion. But at worst this is 60 feet of X-ray vision once per short rest with no time limit, and that is too powerful at level 2 (or even level 12 for that matter).
Soul vessel is clearly just trying to be a better transmuter's stone, and even copied the coveted CON saves proficiency from it, then took it further by giving the Wizard self healing (also, it doesn't need to describe how cure wounds works).
Attuned to souls combines aspects of the necromancer's level 10 feature (swapped can't lower HP with can't surprise) and combined with the diviner's 10th level feature.
The only problem I have with imprison the soul is that 6 extra exploitations in addition to slotless casting seems a little over kill.
I would require much more tuning before allowing this in any campaign, let alone one that focuses on undead.
I am unfamiliar with handling large homebrew changes. But the ability to cast a decently high level spell, Soul Cage for free once a day (especially since it has 6 uses after casting) could be a bit too powerful to have as just a class feature. Receiving Soul Cage for free in the spellbook is easily alright. And perhaps being able to always have that spell prepared, but still needing to use a spell slot to cast it would probably be fine too.
DxJxC mentioned the food and water situation which I was ready to tell you about. I'll go into it with a little detail and list the parts of the Player's Handbook (PHB) to read for full descriptions. Also, Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGtE) has the simple rules for sleeping. All this in consideration, someone who tries to, as you put it:
PHB - Ch 8: Adventuring - The Environment - Food and Water
XGtE - Ch 2: Dungeon Master's Tools - Sleep - Going without a Long Rest
In any case, this staying outside the body thing would quickly pile up the exhaustion points which apply heavy penalties that end in death. So they might not ever want to use that ability for such a long time.
The spot in the books that lists the levels of exhaustion:
PHB - Appendix A: Conditions - Exhaustion
Good luck and may you roll 20's when you need them and 1's when you need a laugh. - myself