Homebrew The Pest Species Details

Curse Sorcerer Subclass

Pests are living Curses born from one of humanity’s most deeply rooted fears: cockroaches. Their bodies are colonies of Cursed Energy held together by countless insects, allowing them to devour living creatures, infest wounds, and regenerate through acts of relentless consumption.

A Pest is an extremely offensive Curse Sorcerer. Even the subclass’s defensive abilities rely on attacking, consuming, or overwhelming another creature through pure violence.

Pest Features

Curse Sorcerer Level	Feature
3rd	Dispensable, Devour, Assimilate, Parthenogenesis
7th	Concentration Eater, Earthen Insect Trance
13th	Roach Blast
15th	Roach-ado
18th	The One True Pest

Pest Save DC

Whenever one of your Pest features requires a saving throw, it uses your Pest save DC.

Pest save DC: 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.

Whenever one of your Pest features requires an attack roll, you use your Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls unless the feature states otherwise.

3rd-Level Pest Features

Dispensable

Despite your size, most of your shell is hollow. This allows you to perform extremely swift movements at the cost of your body’s durability.

Your hit point maximum equals half the hit point maximum you would ordinarily have, rounded down, to a minimum of 1 hit point.

Calculate your hit point maximum normally whenever you gain a level or another effect changes it. Your Hit Dice and the number of hit points gained from each level are not individually halved. After calculating your normal total, halve the final result.

Devour

Your body is composed almost entirely of Cursed Energy and countless cockroaches. This makes you incompatible with most traditional methods of healing.

You cannot regain hit points from spells, potions, or other magical effects unless the effect specifically states that it can restore hit points to Curses. You can still regain hit points by finishing a rest and through your Pest features.

Whenever you hit a creature other than a Construct or Undead with an attack, your Cursed Energy leaves a trail inside the wound. Immediately after the attack resolves, a swarm of cockroaches detaches from your body and begins devouring the wound.

The target takes poison damage equal to the amount shown in the Devour table, and you regain hit points equal to the poison damage actually dealt.

The cockroaches remain attached to the wound for up to 1 minute. At the start of each of the target’s turns, the cockroaches deal the damage again, and you regain hit points equal to the poison damage dealt.

A creature can have only one Devour infestation at a time. If you trigger Devour against an already infested creature, it takes the initial poison damage normally, but no additional infestation is created. Instead, the duration of its existing infestation resets to 1 minute.

The target can spend 5 feet of its movement during its turn to remove the cockroaches from itself, ending the infestation.

The cockroaches attack automatically. You do not use an action, bonus action, or reaction to command them.

Curse Sorcerer Level	Poison Damage
3rd	1d8
5th	1d10
7th	2d8
13th	3d8
15th	3d10
18th	4d10

Assimilate

As an action, you can completely ingest one creature within your reach that is at 0 hit points or dead. Countless cockroaches emerge from your body, consume the creature, and convert its remains into additional members of your colony.

A creature contributes one assimilation if it meets all of the following requirements:

The creature is Medium or larger.

The creature is sentient, as determined by the DM.

The creature has been dead for no longer than 1 hour.

Each qualifying creature increases your Assimilation Count by 1. Your Assimilation Count has no maximum and is used to activate certain Pest features.

A creature that does not meet the size or freshness requirements can still be consumed. Whenever you assimilate a creature that is smaller than Medium or has been dead for longer than 1 hour, you gain 1 temporary hit point.

Unlike normal temporary hit points, temporary hit points gained through this feature are added together. They last until you finish a long rest.

When a creature is reduced to 0 hit points by damage dealt directly by one of your Pest features, you can assimilate it immediately without using an action, provided it meets the normal requirements. Damage from an ordinary weapon or unarmed strike does not trigger this automatic assimilation unless the damage was dealt by a Pest feature.

You cannot assimilate the same creature more than once. You can otherwise use this feature without a daily limit.

Parthenogenesis

Prerequisite: Assimilation Count of 5 or higher

You are exempt from experiencing true death. Even if your primary body is destroyed or reduced to ashes, your Cursed Energy can immediately transfer itself into another cockroach and reconstruct you.

When you die while your Assimilation Count is 5 or higher, you must reduce your Assimilation Count by 5 and activate this feature. You cannot choose to remain dead.

There must be at least one ordinary cockroach within 120 feet of the place where you died. If there is, your Cursed Energy transfers into that cockroach, and you reconstruct yourself in its space or in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of it.

You return in the exact state you were in immediately before receiving the damage or effect that killed you. You have the same number of hit points, remaining feature uses, expended resources, and conditions that you had immediately before the lethal effect occurred.

Your initiative does not change. If you die during your own turn, Parthenogenesis does not restore your action, bonus action, reaction, movement, or any other part of your action economy that you had already expended.

If there is no cockroach within 120 feet of where you died, your Cursed Energy remains dormant within that area until a suitable cockroach enters it. You then reconstruct yourself in that cockroach’s space or in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of it.

If you die while your Assimilation Count is lower than 5, your Cursed Energy instead transfers into an ordinary cockroach. You cannot immediately reconstruct your normal body.

While in this state, you remain within the cockroach and cannot use your normal class or subclass features. Your Cursed Energy gradually causes the host cockroach to produce a small colony capable of feeding and gathering matter for your reconstruction.

You reconstruct your body after either of the following events occurs:

Seventy-two consecutive hours pass.

The colony carrying your Cursed Energy consumes at least one Medium or larger sentient creature.

When you reconstruct yourself in this manner, you return with hit points equal to half your hit point maximum.

7th-Level Pest Features

Concentration Eater

Your cockroaches instinctively seek out the organs and biological systems responsible for maintaining a creature’s focus.

Whenever a creature that is concentrating on a spell or another effect takes damage from a melee attack you make, either with your body or a weapon you wield, it rolls three d20s for the resulting Constitution saving throw made to maintain concentration and uses the lowest result.

This feature also applies when one of your Pest features physically contacts the creature and deals damage to it.

Earthen Insect Trance

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, to a minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

As an action, you release 1d4 flying cockroaches. Each cockroach has a belly swollen with a bright green neurotoxin and remains active for up to 1 minute.

Each cockroach has Armor Class 7, 1 hit point, and a flying speed of 15 feet. The cockroaches do not roll initiative, take turns, or take actions.

At the end of each of your turns, every released cockroach moves up to 15 feet toward the closest creature that is not allied with you, following the shortest available path. If multiple creatures are equally close, you choose which creature the cockroach follows.

A cockroach explodes when one of the following events occurs:

It enters another creature’s space.

It is reduced to 0 hit points.

It collides with a solid obstruction that prevents it from continuing along its path.

Air, gases, and the initial contact with your body do not cause a cockroach to explode.

When a cockroach explodes, it releases neurotoxin in a 5-foot-radius sphere centered on itself. Each creature in the area must make a Constitution saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature suffers the following effects until the end of its next turn:

Its five ordinary senses are completely impaired. It is blinded and deafened, and it cannot perceive creatures or objects through smell, taste, or touch.

Its speed is halved.

It cannot take bonus actions or reactions.

It cannot use or activate objects.

During its turn, it can move and take one action, but it cannot perform any other part of its normal action economy.

The creature is also poisoned for 1d4 rounds. At the start of each of its turns while poisoned in this way, it takes 1d4 poison damage.

Steal the Turn

Immediately after a creature within 60 feet of you fails its saving throw against the neurotoxin, you can use your reaction to move up to 120 feet toward it.

This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. You must end this movement in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the affected creature that the DM considers directly behind it.

After completing this movement, your initiative changes to immediately before the affected creature’s initiative.

This changes when your next turn occurs. It does not grant you an additional turn.

If you have not yet taken your turn during the current round, you take it immediately before the affected creature. If you have already taken your turn during the current round, you do not take another turn, and your new initiative position applies beginning with the next round.

Your initiative remains in this new position for the rest of the combat.

You can use Steal the Turn only once per round.

13th-Level Pest Feature

Roach Blast

Prerequisite: Assimilation Count of 3 or higher

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Dexterity modifier, to a minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

When you use this feature, reduce your Assimilation Count by 3.

As an action, you open your roach-infested mouth and release a massive beam of cockroaches in a line that is 60 feet long and 15 feet wide.

Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 6d12 + your Dexterity modifier bludgeoning damage. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage.

If at least one creature fails the saving throw, choose one creature that failed. The beam concentrates around that creature and forms a 10-foot-radius ball of cockroaches centered on it.

The chosen creature becomes engulfed by the ball. While engulfed, it is incapacitated and restrained, and it moves with the ball.

Immediately after forming, and again at the start of each of your turns, the ball moves up to 30 feet in its current direction.

The ball begins by moving in the same direction as the original line. It can travel a maximum total distance of 60 feet.

Whenever the ball enters the space of another creature, that creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 6d12 + your Dexterity modifier bludgeoning damage, becomes engulfed, and is incapacitated and restrained.

Each time the ball engulfs another creature, its radius increases by 5 feet, and its maximum travel distance increases by 10 feet.

At the start of each engulfed creature’s turn, that creature can make a Strength saving throw. On a successful save, it breaks free and appears in the nearest unoccupied space outside the ball.

Whenever a creature breaks free, the ball’s radius decreases by 5 feet, to a minimum radius of 10 feet. Its maximum travel distance also decreases by 10 feet, but never below the distance it has already traveled.

The ball cannot pass through a solid obstruction. If it collides with a wall, closed door, or another obstruction it cannot break through, its movement ends for that turn.

If the ball moves over an unsupported drop, it falls and carries every engulfed creature with it. Any falling damage is resolved normally.

While the ball exists, you can use a bonus action once on each of your turns to change its direction. You choose a new straight direction for it to follow. The ball cannot curve and cannot change direction more than once during the same turn.

The ball disappears when it has traveled its maximum distance, when no creatures remain engulfed within it, or after 1 minute.

15th-Level Pest Feature

Roach-ado

Prerequisite: Assimilation Count of 5 or higher

You can use this feature once. You regain the ability to use it when you finish a long rest.

When you use this feature, reduce your Assimilation Count by 5.

As an action, you order your cockroaches to form a massive tornado centered on a point you can see within 45 feet of you.

The tornado occupies a 15-foot-radius, 60-foot-high cylinder. At its center is a 5-foot-radius eye.

The tornado lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Dexterity modifier, to a minimum of 1 round. It requires concentration, as if concentrating on a spell.

The tornado does not distinguish friend from foe. It affects every creature other than you.

While the tornado exists, the speed of every creature within 60 feet of it is halved.

At the start of the turn of each Large or smaller creature within 60 feet of the tornado, that creature must make either a Strength or Constitution saving throw. The creature chooses which saving throw to make.

If a creature outside the tornado fails the saving throw, it is pulled into the outer portion of the tornado.

If a creature already in the outer portion fails the saving throw, it is pulled into the eye.

If a creature inside the eye fails the saving throw, it remains there.

A creature in the outer portion of the tornado takes 8d6 slashing damage and 8d6 poison damage after resolving its saving throw.

A creature inside the eye takes 16d6 slashing damage and 16d6 poison damage instead.

A Huge or Gargantuan creature cannot be pulled by this feature, but it still takes the appropriate damage if it enters or begins its turn inside the tornado.

If a creature inside the tornado succeeds on its saving throw, it escapes to the nearest unoccupied space outside the tornado. After escaping in this way, it is immune to being pulled or damaged by that use of Roach-ado for the rest of its duration.

A creature outside the tornado that succeeds on its saving throw resists the pull for that turn but is not immune to later saving throws.

18th-Level Pest Feature

The One True Pest

Prerequisite: Assimilation Count of 18 or higher

You reach the absolute peak of your parasitic nature.

You can use this feature once. You regain the ability to use it when you finish a long rest.

When you begin using this feature, reduce your Assimilation Count by 18.

As an action, you begin calling every cockroach within approximately 3 miles, or 5 kilometers, of your location. The cockroaches temporarily merge with your body, forcing you to expand into an enormous, thick, nonporous dome.

Completing the transformation requires two consecutive turns. You must use your action on both turns to continue the transformation.

During this process, you are considered to be concentrating. Taking damage cannot break this concentration and does not cause you to make Constitution saving throws. The transformation can be interrupted only if you die before completing it.

When the transformation is complete, you become Gargantuan and form a hemispherical dome approximately 1,640 feet across and 820 feet high, centered on your location.

Every creature within the area is trapped inside the dome.

A creature standing on the boundary of the dome when it forms must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it falls into the nearest unoccupied space inside the dome. On a successful save, it moves to the nearest unoccupied space outside the dome.

The dome lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier, to a minimum of 1 round. It ends early if you die.

Dome Body

The dome is your body. Your speed becomes 0, and you cannot move or leave the dome’s location for the duration.

When the dome forms, its current hit points and hit point maximum equal ten times your normal hit point maximum after applying the reduction from Dispensable.

The dome has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

An attack made against any part of the dome hits automatically and does not require an attack roll. Damage dealt to any part of the dome is subtracted from the same pool of hit points.

If the dome is reduced to 0 hit points, you die.

If a single point on the dome receives damage equal to at least half the dome’s hit point maximum during one turn, a physical breach opens at that point. The opening is large enough for creatures to pass through and remains open until the dome disappears.

Creatures cannot use a burrowing speed or similar movement to pass beneath or through the dome.

A teleportation effect can transport a creature outside the dome only if the effect can target a location without requiring the creature to see that destination. A teleportation effect that requires the destination to be visible fails if used to leave the dome.

Roach Sea

When the dome is completed, countless cockroaches begin swarming across its lowest 10 feet, or approximately 3 meters.

Their sheer number causes them to behave like an extremely thick liquid.

A creature with a swimming speed can use that speed normally while inside the roach sea. A creature without a swimming speed can still swim through it, but every foot of movement costs 2 feet.

At the start of the turn of each creature inside the roach sea, that creature must make a Dexterity saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature’s speed becomes 10 feet until the start of its next turn.

Upper Secretion

The remainder of the dome above the roach sea fills with an extremely toxic secretion.

At the start of the turn of each creature breathing the secretion, that creature must make a Constitution saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature is paralyzed until the start of its next turn.

A creature that does not need to breathe is immune to this effect.

Calcified Roach Bombardment

Beginning one round after the dome is completed, the upper walls begin collecting enormous clumps of cockroaches. The cockroaches calcify into meteor-like projectiles before being launched at creatures below.

As an action on each of your turns, you can launch a number of calcified roach meteors equal to twice your Dexterity modifier, to a minimum of two meteors.

You can direct the meteors toward different targets or concentrate any number of them on the same target.

Make a separate ranged Pest attack for each meteor.

Ranged Pest Attack: your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier to hit, range any point within the dome, one target.

Hit: 5d12 + your Dexterity modifier bludgeoning damage.

Structural Collapse

When the duration ends, the dome collapses and the cockroaches separate from your body.

You return to your normal form, but your size becomes Small, you have 1 hit point, and you are incapacitated until the end of your next turn.

You remain Small until you assimilate at least one Medium or larger sentient creature.

The Pest Traits

Pest lets a Curse Sorcerer infest wounds, heal through devouring flesh, assimilate corpses, resurrect through cockroaches, and unleash increasingly catastrophic swarms.