Homebrew Surgeon Species Details

Curse Sorcerer Subclass

Surgeons approach cursed energy with an almost clinical precision. Rather than allowing it to erupt without restraint, they compress it into impossibly fine edges, identify structural weaknesses in creatures and objects, and turn even the smallest opening into catastrophic trauma.

With enough practice, a Surgeon can treat flesh, steel, stone, and even the air itself as something waiting to be dissected.

Surgeon Features

Curse Sorcerer Level	Feature
3rd	Overclock, 7:3
7th	Collapse
13th	Black Flash
15th	A Thicker Skin
18th	A Happy Ending

3rd Level: Overclock

You can deliberately suppress your cursed energy for an extended period, allowing it to accumulate within your body under steadily increasing pressure.

If you finish a Long Rest after having refrained from using cursed energy since the end of your previous Long Rest, you become Overclocked.

For the purpose of this feature, using cursed energy includes expending Cursed Energy Points or activating a Curse Sorcerer or Surgeon feature that explicitly requires you to channel, release, concentrate, or imbue something with cursed energy.

A naturally acquired Overclock lasts until your next Long Rest unless it ends early.

While Overclocked, you gain the following benefits:

• You have advantage on initiative rolls.

• Whenever you hit with a melee weapon attack, including an Unarmed Strike, the impact leaks compressed cursed energy in a small explosion. The attack deals an additional 1d4 force damage.

• If damage would reduce you to 0 Hit Points, including damage that would otherwise kill you outright as a result of reaching 0 Hit Points, you instead drop to 1 Hit Point, and Overclock immediately ends.

When Overclock ends in this way, you return to your normal cursed energy state.

Forced Overclock

You can violently force your body into an Overclocked state without preparing the surplus beforehand.

As a Bonus Action, you can activate Forced Overclock even if you did not meet Overclock's normal preparation requirement.

You can use Forced Overclock once per Long Rest.

If you are already naturally Overclocked when you activate Forced Overclock, your existing Overclock immediately ends and is replaced by Forced Overclock. The two states never overlap, and the natural Overclock does not resume when Forced Overclock ends.

When Forced Overclock begins, your body temperature rapidly rises to approximately 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) as cursed energy violently envelops your body.

Forced Overclock grants all the normal benefits of Overclock and lasts for 1 minute.

Immediately when you activate Forced Overclock, you regain your expended Action, Bonus Action, Reaction, and movement for the current turn. Your remaining movement becomes equal to your Speed.

This restoration does not give you more than one unused instance of any of those actions at the same time. It instead restores any of them that you have already expended.

When Forced Overclock ends, the tremendous strain renders you incapable of producing cursed energy. Until you finish a Long Rest, you cannot expend Cursed Energy Points or use any Curse Sorcerer or Surgeon feature that explicitly requires cursed energy.

If Forced Overclock ends early because Overclock prevents you from being reduced to 0 Hit Points, this cursed energy exhaustion begins immediately.

3rd Level: 7:3

Your innate technique allows you to identify and create structural Weak Points by dividing a target into an imaginary ratio and striking precisely at the point corresponding to 7:3.

You can use 7:3 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.

You do not require a weapon to channel this technique. When necessary, cursed energy concentrates along the edge of an object or one of your extremities, sharpening it to a degree comparable to the edge of a surgical scalpel.

Ratio Analysis

Before making a 7:3 strike, you use a Bonus Action and expend one use of this feature to mentally divide the point you intend to strike into ten equal sections.

Make a DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check.

On a success, you identify its 7:3 point. Before the end of the current turn, you can replace one attack made as part of your Attack action with a 7:3 strike against that point.

On a failed check, you fail to identify the ratio. You can continue your turn and attack normally, but cannot make the 7:3 strike from that use.

You must make this Investigation check every time you activate 7:3.

If your subsequent 7:3 strike hits, the expended use of 7:3 is immediately restored.

Surgical Strike

If you make the 7:3 strike without a weapon, the attack uses the following profile:

Melee Weapon Attack: your Proficiency Bonus + your Dexterity modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature or object.

Hit: Slashing damage equal to the Unarmed Damage shown in the 7:3 Progression table + your Dexterity modifier.

Despite being performed with an extremity, this attack is considered a melee weapon attack.

If you perform 7:3 using a weapon, make the attack using that weapon normally.

Accumulating Stages

7:3 becomes progressively more destructive when you repeatedly strike the exact same point on a target.

Each point tracks its own number of successful 7:3 strikes. The stages below are cumulative.

If a Weak Point is concealed, cured, completely covered, or otherwise rendered impossible to target, its accumulated sequence can no longer be continued. You must establish a new point with 7:3 to begin accumulating stages again.

First Hit

The strike deals additional Slashing damage according to the Slicing Damage column of the 7:3 Progression table.

Second Hit: Weak Point

The struck area tears open into an unnatural wound and becomes a Weak Point.

Whenever an attack specifically targets that visible and physically accessible Weak Point, the attacker adds 1d4 to the attack roll.

If the target is a creature capable of bleeding, the wound also begins bleeding. At the start of each of the creature's turns, it takes Slashing damage equal to the amount shown in the Bleeding Damage column of the 7:3 Progression table.

A creature can suffer bleeding from only one 7:3 Weak Point at a time, even if you create several Weak Points on it.

The bleeding ends if the wound is sufficiently healed or closed by magic, medicine, regeneration, or another appropriate effect, as determined by the DM.

You can expose multiple Weak Points on the same creature.

Third and Subsequent Hits: Surgical Dismemberment

Beginning with the third successful 7:3 strike against the same Weak Point, each subsequent successful 7:3 strike against that point can attempt Surgical Dismemberment.

If the damage dealt by the triggering attack exceeds the appropriate fraction of the target's remaining Hit Points immediately before the attack, a non-vital extremity located at the struck point can be severed with surgical precision.

The required threshold is shown in the Dismemberment Threshold column of the 7:3 Progression table.

Failing to meet the threshold does not remove the Weak Point. As long as that same Weak Point remains visible, accessible, and otherwise intact, you can continue striking it and attempting Surgical Dismemberment.

The severed surfaces show virtually no deformation and are immediately sealed by your cursed energy.

Until Remove Curse is applied to the affected creature or you die, an extremity severed in this way cannot be reattached or restored.

Dismemberment is always subject to the DM's discretion. The DM is never required to reveal a creature's current or remaining Hit Points, whether the damage threshold has been reached, or whether a particular extremity can reasonably be severed.

7:3 Progression

Curse Sorcerer Level	Unarmed Damage	Slicing Damage	Bleeding Damage	Dismemberment Threshold
3rd	1d8	1d12	1d4	More than 1/5 remaining HP
7th	1d10	2d10	1d4	More than 1/5 remaining HP
13th	2d10	2d12	1d6	More than 1/6 remaining HP
18th	3d8	3d10	1d8	More than 1/7 remaining HP

HBB Note: You must make the Investigation check every time you activate 7:3. Succeeding once won't cut it ;)

7th Level: Collapse

You learn to force a Weak Point into inanimate matter, including solid, liquid, and gaseous matter such as air.

You can use Collapse 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.

As an Action, you touch a point of inanimate matter and concentrate a substantial amount of cursed energy into it.

Before striking, choose the radius of the resulting explosion, up to a maximum of 15 feet.

You then strike the Weak Point.

The immense concentration of cursed energy violently compresses the matter at the point of impact before causing it to erupt outward.

Each creature within the chosen radius takes Bludgeoning damage according to the Collapse Damage table + your Dexterity modifier.

Each creature in the area must also make a Dexterity saving throw against your Curse Sorcerer save DC.

On a failed save, a creature is pushed 10 feet directly away from the point of impact and knocked Prone.

On a successful save, it is not pushed or knocked Prone.

The damage from Collapse is dealt regardless of whether the saving throw succeeds.

A creature knocked Prone by Collapse can stand normally using its movement.

If the forced movement causes a creature to fall from a height or into another hazard, resolve the consequences normally, including falling damage when applicable.

Depending on the material destroyed by the explosion, the affected area can become difficult terrain at the DM's discretion.

Collapse Damage

Curse Sorcerer Level	Damage
7th	9d8 + Dexterity modifier
13th	9d10 + Dexterity modifier
15th	10d12 + Dexterity modifier
18th	12d12 + Dexterity modifier

HBB Note: Yes, the armor worn by your enemy counts as inanimate matter. :)

13th Level: Black Flash

You concentrate your entire cursed energy output into one extremity for a fraction of a second and release it with impossible timing.

You can use Black Flash twice. You regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

You can use Black Flash only against a creature that currently has at least one Weak Point created by your 7:3 feature.

The Black Flash itself does not need to target that Weak Point.

When you take the Attack action, you can replace one of your attacks with a Black Flash.

Melee Weapon Attack: your Proficiency Bonus + your Dexterity modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.

Hit: 10d12 + your Dexterity modifier force damage.

The first time you hit with Black Flash during each combat, the point struck also counts as one successful 7:3 strike, automatically applying the appropriate 7:3 stage at that point.

This additional 7:3 stage requires no Investigation check and does not expend a use of 7:3.

HBB Note: Black Flash is a melee weapon attack made as part of the Attack action. Thanks to Extra Attack from the Curse Sorcerer class, nothing stops you from spending both uses during the same Attack action if you have enough attacks available.

15th Level: A Thicker Skin

Your mastery over cursed energy expands beyond offense, allowing you to reinforce your own body with layers of concentrated energy.

You can use A Thicker Skin a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier, to a minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Whenever you activate either form of this feature, you expend one use.

Cursed Skin

As an Action, you envelop your entire body in a dense layer of cursed energy.

The effect requires Concentration, as if concentrating on a spell, and lasts for up to 1 minute.

For the duration, you gain the following benefits:

• Your AC increases by half your Proficiency Bonus, rounded up.

• Whenever another creature directly contacts your body, it takes 1d10 force damage as the cursed energy burns through its soul or equivalent essence. This includes contact caused by Unarmed Strikes, natural weapons, grappling, or similar bodily contact.

• Whenever you hit another creature with an Unarmed Strike, it also takes this additional 1d10 force damage.

• A physical projectile measuring less than 1 inch across is destroyed immediately before it would strike your body, causing that projectile's attack to miss.

Whether a creature without a soul in the traditional sense possesses an equivalent essence that can be affected by Cursed Skin is determined by the DM.

Emergency Reinforcement

When you are targeted by an attack you can see, you can use your Reaction and expend one use of A Thicker Skin to flood your body with cursed energy.

You gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus.

This bonus applies against the triggering attack and lasts until the end of your next turn.

Emergency Reinforcement does not require Concentration.

If Cursed Skin is already active, the AC bonus from Emergency Reinforcement stacks with the AC bonus granted by Cursed Skin.

18th Level: A Happy Ending

The precision of your cursed technique becomes so deeply ingrained that you no longer need to consciously calculate where something must be cut.

Your attacks flow with such effortless precision that the mere sight of them carries an almost unnatural elegance.

You gain the following benefits:

• You can use 7:3 without expending any uses.

• You no longer make the preliminary Intelligence (Investigation) check when activating 7:3. You automatically identify the intended 7:3 point.

• You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened condition.

Your 7:3 damage and dismemberment threshold also improve to their 18th-level values shown in the 7:3 Progression table.

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HBB Note: Why "Surgeon"?

The word surgeon ultimately traces back to the Ancient Greek kheirourgia, built from kheir, meaning "hand," and ergon, meaning "work." In other words, the root idea behind surgery is literally work performed by hand.

That felt pretty appropriate for this subclass. Almost everything a Surgeon does comes down to refining cursed energy through their own hands and extremities until fighting starts looking less like brute force and more like a very, very violent operation.

Surgeon Traits

A precision-focused Curse Sorcerer who overclocks cursed energy, creates devastating 7:3 Weak Points, collapses matter, unleashes Black Flashes, and reinforces their body with cursed energy.