Hello, Recently my PC - thanks to Deck of Many Things - had a chance to ask any question and thanks to that gained knowledge of Talona Godness of poisons and diseases. As my question was clearly overpowered, MG decided some flaws for it, like memory loss - I need to make Wis roll to remember how to use skills.
That choice is definitely one of the biggest in my PC life and will surely give him some unusual abilities, and change the way he fought, etc.. All those changes bring to mind standard class options, so I decided to prepare a new class, oriented in debuffs (diseases), conditions transfer (disease), accumulative damage (poisons) and conditional damage (poison).
I'm can't hide that I expect some overpowered properties here and there, after all, it's godly knowledge :P But I don't want an unbalanced character, as much as strong futures I would like flaws.
Does anyone have some ideas for options, and how to make a class like this or have any similar class (maybe in other editions or some popular homebrews)? I'll gladly read your ideas for nice abilities and flaws.
Here is what's I come with for now :
### God Knowledge in Mortal Body (Balancing option) ## Full Memory You have problems with recalling information from your nearly full memory.
If you try using any skill in which you lack proficiency you need to make **Wisdom saving roll (13)** to recall how to do that, on failed save you need to subtract your proficiency from that skill test.
If you saw someone using that skill recently you gain advantage on your save.
You can retry test each turn, but looking for that piece of information take then one action.
### Poison Influence (Standard Spellcasting) Your ability in magic come from knowledge of poison and disease arts. You bend nature to it's broken form of death and destruction. ## Influence Ability Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your spells since the power of your magic rely on your knowledge of poisons and diseases.
**Poison save DC** = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
**Poison attack modifier** = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
### Deathly aura Exposure to poison and disease taint your body creating a deathly aura around you, on each level, it's gain additional effects.
You start looking deadly sick, your **Charisma has a limit of 18.** * **2nd** - Food touched by you spoil or get poisoned * **4th** - Your blood becomes poison, any melee attack against you have a chance of inflicting 1d6 damage (+1d6 for each class level) to the attacker (Spell save DC) * **6th** - You can freely control your aura, choosing its targets. Characters around you (10ft at 6th level, 20ft at 8th and 30ft at 10th) need to make Constitution (Spell save DC) saving throw on a failed save they get poisoned. * **8th** - Diseases which it contains deal 1d6 damage for each class level/2 every turn and can spread if someone around the target is under its effects he gets disadvantage on save. * **10th** - All poisoned targets around you lose their resistances.
### Friend of Plage Creatures of plage like rats, flies, etc. try to befriend you, some may listen to your commands others may just like staying around you. Interactions with that creatures are treated as proficient, or if it's already like that - like expertise.
You can have with you the maximum amount of swarms equal your Intelligence modifier.
Also, your new companions are carriers of diseases. Any attack made by them deal additional dice of poison damage and any critical hit make target poisoned.
#### Health Weakness You can instantly see resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilities of targets.
You can draw forth illness (as many times as shown in a class table per long rest) changing all immunities to resistances, dismiss resistances, and make target vulnerable to all other types of damage. ##### Bacteria Sharing Given the number of times per long rest, you may infect someone with conditions which suffer other targets in 25ft from it.
I'd be inclined to go the sub-class route instead. My gut feeling says that you are now a Warlock, your Patron is the Fragment of Talona buried deep in your mind.
Pact Magic, You gain spells as a Warlock, but Intelligence is your spellcasting ability. You are not engaged in a battle of wills with another entity, but a battle of mental fortitude with accumulated knowledge of a being far beyond you.
Expanded Spell List: Poison, Disease and Contagion Related Spells
Friends of the Plague even reads like an Eldritch Invocation.
Plagued Mind At first level, you begin the battle of wills within your own mind. You have disadvantage on ability checks made using skills you are not proficient with. You may instead grant yourself Expertise in any of the following skills: History, Religion, Arcana, Medicine, Insight, Intimidation, Nature or Survival. If you grant yourself advantage in this way, the knowledge comes from your stolen memories, with all the contextual baggage that implies. (A Religion check to see if you know who a God of Healing is might have you blurting out 'That wench has thwarted my plans for centuries, her green coated minions are to be bled dry at any opportunity.')
Plagued Body At 6th level, you are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. You can contract any number of poisons or diseases, but suffer no ill effects from them. As a bonus action you may take any of your bodily fluids and lace a weapon or mix them into spell components. Choose a poison or disease you have contracted, a target hit by the infected weapon or spell must make a constitution saving throw vs your spell save DC or suffer the effects of that disease or poison.
Does anyone have some ideas for options, and how to make a class like this or have any similar class (maybe in other editions or some popular homebrews)? I'll gladly read your ideas for nice abilities and flaws.
In my Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, I include poison-centric subclasses for every major class type as well as customized poison-centric warlock patrons for every patron type. You might be particularly interested in my Scourge Magic sorcerer, which is strongly tied to Talona. Here's part of the subclass's description from the guide:
You are a creature of disease, corrosion, and venom, for your innate magic comes from the scarlet-jungle-covered orbs of Cathrys, the second layer of the Tarterian Depths of Carceri, known for its poisonous and acid-secreting vegetation. You might trace your lineage to someone whose soul briefly drifted to this plane in death before being resurrected, or perhaps to an ancestor who worshipped Talona, Lady of Poison, Mistress of Disease, and Mother of All Plagues, whose Palace of Poison Tears was on Cathrys. Maybe you were somehow directly exposed to the plague-ridden energy of these orbs and transformed by it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Author of Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, The Primal Gith, and other forthcoming titles at DMs Guild
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello,
Recently my PC - thanks to Deck of Many Things - had a chance to ask any question and thanks to that gained knowledge of Talona Godness of poisons and diseases.
As my question was clearly overpowered, MG decided some flaws for it, like memory loss - I need to make Wis roll to remember how to use skills.
That choice is definitely one of the biggest in my PC life and will surely give him some unusual abilities, and change the way he fought, etc.. All those changes bring to mind standard class options, so I decided to prepare a new class, oriented in debuffs (diseases), conditions transfer (disease), accumulative damage (poisons) and conditional damage (poison).
I'm can't hide that I expect some overpowered properties here and there, after all, it's godly knowledge :P
But I don't want an unbalanced character, as much as strong futures I would like flaws.
Does anyone have some ideas for options, and how to make a class like this or have any similar class (maybe in other editions or some popular homebrews)?
I'll gladly read your ideas for nice abilities and flaws.
Here is what's I come with for now :
### God Knowledge in Mortal Body (Balancing option)
## Full Memory
You have problems with recalling information from your nearly full memory.
If you try using any skill in which you lack proficiency you need to make **Wisdom saving roll (13)** to recall how to do that, on failed save you need to subtract your proficiency from that skill test.
If you saw someone using that skill recently you gain advantage on your save.
You can retry test each turn, but looking for that piece of information take then one action.
### Poison Influence (Standard Spellcasting)
Your ability in magic come from knowledge of poison and disease arts. You bend nature to it's broken form of death and destruction.
## Influence Ability
Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your
spells since the power of your magic rely on your
knowledge of poisons and diseases.
**Poison save DC** = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
**Poison attack modifier** = your proficiency bonus +
your Intelligence modifier
### Deathly aura
Exposure to poison and disease taint your body creating a deathly aura around you, on each level, it's gain additional effects.
You start looking deadly sick, your **Charisma has a limit of 18.**
* **2nd** - Food touched by you spoil or get poisoned
* **4th** - Your blood becomes poison, any melee attack against you have a chance of inflicting 1d6 damage (+1d6 for each class level) to the attacker (Spell save DC)
* **6th** - You can freely control your aura, choosing its targets. Characters around you (10ft at 6th level, 20ft at 8th and 30ft at 10th) need to make Constitution (Spell save DC) saving throw on a failed save they get poisoned.
* **8th** - Diseases which it contains deal 1d6 damage for each class level/2 every turn and can spread if someone around the target is under its effects he gets disadvantage on save.
* **10th** - All poisoned targets around you lose their resistances.
### Friend of Plage
Creatures of plage like rats, flies, etc. try to befriend you, some may listen to your commands others may just like staying around you. Interactions with that creatures are treated as proficient, or if it's already like that - like expertise.
You can have with you the maximum amount of swarms equal your Intelligence modifier.
Also, your new companions are carriers of diseases. Any attack made by them deal additional dice of poison damage and any critical hit make target poisoned.
#### Health Weakness
You can instantly see resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilities of targets.
You can draw forth illness (as many times as shown in a class table per long rest) changing all immunities to resistances, dismiss resistances, and make target vulnerable to all other types of damage.
##### Bacteria Sharing
Given the number of times per long rest, you may infect someone with conditions which suffer other targets in 25ft from it.
Thanks for all help!
I'd be inclined to go the sub-class route instead. My gut feeling says that you are now a Warlock, your Patron is the Fragment of Talona buried deep in your mind.
Pact Magic, You gain spells as a Warlock, but Intelligence is your spellcasting ability. You are not engaged in a battle of wills with another entity, but a battle of mental fortitude with accumulated knowledge of a being far beyond you.
Expanded Spell List: Poison, Disease and Contagion Related Spells
Friends of the Plague even reads like an Eldritch Invocation.
Plagued Mind
At first level, you begin the battle of wills within your own mind. You have disadvantage on ability checks made using skills you are not proficient with. You may instead grant yourself Expertise in any of the following skills: History, Religion, Arcana, Medicine, Insight, Intimidation, Nature or Survival. If you grant yourself advantage in this way, the knowledge comes from your stolen memories, with all the contextual baggage that implies. (A Religion check to see if you know who a God of Healing is might have you blurting out 'That wench has thwarted my plans for centuries, her green coated minions are to be bled dry at any opportunity.')
Plagued Body
At 6th level, you are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. You can contract any number of poisons or diseases, but suffer no ill effects from them. As a bonus action you may take any of your bodily fluids and lace a weapon or mix them into spell components. Choose a poison or disease you have contracted, a target hit by the infected weapon or spell must make a constitution saving throw vs your spell save DC or suffer the effects of that disease or poison.
Not sure on 10th and 14th level features...
My DM's Guild Content - Mostly quick rules and guides.
In my Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, I include poison-centric subclasses for every major class type as well as customized poison-centric warlock patrons for every patron type. You might be particularly interested in my Scourge Magic sorcerer, which is strongly tied to Talona. Here's part of the subclass's description from the guide: