Homebrew Darkest Cloud Species Details

Curse Sorcerer Subclass

Your cursed energy does not merely flow through your body. Your flesh continuously breaks down and regenerates around it, generating an electrical current powerful enough to turn your entire nervous system into living circuitry.

As your technique develops, the electricity coursing through you becomes increasingly unnatural. You can overload nervous systems, recall objects through violent electrical bonds, travel as living lightning, and eventually command the sky itself.

Darkest Cloud Features

Curse Sorcerer Level	Feature
3rd	Living Circuitry, Pulse, The Faint Blue Bond, Greek Fire
7th	Ohmwrecker
13th	Mythical Beast Amber
15th	The Sprawling Web
18th	God of Lightning

3rd Level: Living Circuitry

Your flesh continuously breaks itself down and regenerates around the cursed energy coursing through it, generating a remarkable electrical current throughout your body.

This current grants you the following benefits.

Contact Current

Your body constantly discharges electricity through direct physical contact.

Whenever you hit a creature with a melee attack, including an Unarmed Strike, that creature takes additional Lightning damage equal to your Contact Damage.

A creature also takes this damage when it makes direct physical contact with you, such as by hitting you with an Unarmed Strike or natural weapon, grappling you, or otherwise directly touching your body.

The current extends through objects you are actively wielding or carrying, even if those objects would not normally conduct electricity.

Objects that come into direct contact with your electrical current can ignite or suffer other appropriate effects depending on their material and condition, at the DM's discretion.

Your Contact Damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Living Circuitry table.

Living Circuitry

Curse Sorcerer Level	Contact Damage
3rd	1d4
7th	1d6
13th	1d8
18th	1d10

Conductive Current

Although your electricity normally disperses rapidly through the environment, an uninterrupted conductive material can carry your cursed current up to 3,280 feet, or roughly 0.6 mile, without losing potency.

The conductive path must remain physically continuous throughout the entire distance.

A creature that comes into direct contact with such an electrified conductive path can be affected by your Contact Current as appropriate.

A creature can take your Contact Damage through the same conductive path only once per turn.

Fried

Repeated exposure to your cursed electricity progressively disrupts a creature's nervous system.

Whenever you successfully hit a creature that possesses a nervous system in the traditional sense with an attack granted by this subclass or an attack that deals Lightning damage through one of its features, record one Circuit Hit against that creature.

When a creature accumulates 3 Circuit Hits, it must make a Constitution saving throw against your Curse Sorcerer save DC.

After the saving throw is resolved, its Circuit Hits reset to 0.

On a failed save, the creature becomes Fried until the end of its next turn.

A Fried creature suffers the following effects:

• Its Speed is reduced by 5 feet.

• It cannot take Reactions.

• The first saving throw it makes while Fried automatically fails.

On a successful saving throw, the creature does not become Fried.

Circuit Hits against a creature are lost when initiative ends.

3rd Level: Pulse

You can explosively discharge the electricity surrounding your body.

You can use Pulse a number of times equal to your Dexterity modifier + your Proficiency Bonus, to a minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

As a Bonus Action, you release a shock wave of thick, exceptionally hot blue lightning around yourself.

Each other creature within 5 feet of you takes your Living Circuitry Contact Damage and must make a Constitution saving throw against your Curse Sorcerer save DC.

On a failed save, a creature is pushed 5 feet directly away from you.

A Fried creature automatically fails this saving throw. Instead of being pushed 5 feet, it is hurled 15 feet directly away from you and becomes Charged until the end of its next turn.

While Charged, the creature carries the full electrical current of your Living Circuitry with it. Whenever it comes into direct physical contact with another creature, including by colliding with that creature during its forced movement, the contacted creature takes your Living Circuitry Contact Damage.

A creature can take this transmitted damage only once from each use of Pulse.

HBB Note: The most convenient use of Pulse is to Fried somebody first, then blast them 15 feet directly into somebody else. Their body carries your Living Circuitry with it, so congratulations, you've successfully weaponized a person as an electrical projectile. Whether the collision also knocks somebody Prone is up to your DM.

3rd Level: The Faint Blue Bond

You can establish an extraordinarily delicate electrical connection between yourself and an object.

Whenever you finish a Long Rest, choose one object that you can comfortably carry or wield. The object becomes bonded to you until you finish your next Long Rest.

A nearly imperceptible yet strikingly elegant thread of pale-blue electricity remains between you and the bonded object.

You can use The Faint Blue Bond 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.

While your bonded object is at least 5 feet away from you but no more than 40 feet away, you can use your Reaction to recall it.

A thick, imposing bolt of neon-blue lightning immediately forms between you and the object. The bolt is 5 feet wide and extends along the shortest unobstructed path between you and the object.

Each creature within the bolt's path must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Curse Sorcerer save DC.

On a failed save, a creature takes 3d6 + your Dexterity modifier Lightning damage.

On a successful save, it takes no damage.

The bonded object then instantly travels along the electrical connection and arrives in your grasp or against another part of your body capable of carrying it.

3rd Level: Greek Fire

Despite the extraordinary control you possess over electricity in dry environments, your cursed current behaves counterintuitively around water.

Water and similar liquids do not conduct electricity produced by your cursed technique. Your electrical effects cannot travel through such liquids unless another feature specifically states otherwise.

However, complete submersion allows you to exploit the water chemically instead.

You can use Greek Fire once, and you regain its use when you finish a Long Rest.

When you become completely submerged in water, you can use your Reaction to electrolyze the surrounding liquid and violently produce a cloud of chlorine gas.

The cloud fills a 30-foot-radius area centered on you and lasts for 1d4 rounds, or until a sufficiently strong wind, ventilation, or another appropriate effect disperses it.

When the cloud appears, each creature other than you within it must make a Constitution saving throw against your Curse Sorcerer save DC.

A creature that enters the cloud for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there must also make this saving throw.

On a failed save, a creature takes 1d6 Poison damage and is Incapacitated until the start of its next turn.

On a successful save, it suffers no effect from that instance of exposure.

7th Level: Ohmwrecker

You develop enough control over your cursed electricity to deliberately separate its positive and negative components before violently recombining them around an overloaded nervous system.

You can use Ohmwrecker 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 a creature within 40 feet of you becomes Fried, you can use your Reaction to release the negative charge you have separated from your current.

The charge surges toward the Fried creature, where the opposing particles violently recombine into an extraordinarily thick bolt of dark-blue lightning.

Every Fried creature within 40 feet of you is struck by the discharge and takes Lightning damage according to the Ohmwrecker table.

Each other creature within 15 feet of a Fried creature struck in this way must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Curse Sorcerer save DC.

On a failed save, that creature takes half the Lightning damage rolled for Ohmwrecker.

On a successful save, it takes no damage.

A creature can take this secondary damage only once from each use of Ohmwrecker, even if it is within 15 feet of multiple Fried creatures.

Ohmwrecker

Curse Sorcerer Level	Lightning Damage
7th	4d10 + Dexterity modifier
13th	5d10 + Dexterity modifier
15th	6d10 + Dexterity modifier
18th	7d10 + Dexterity modifier

13th Level: Mythical Beast Amber

Prerequisite: An extensive understanding of the body your consciousness inhabits

You finally abandon the restrictions imposed by your own flesh.

As a Bonus Action, you can assume Mythical Beast Amber.

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a Long Rest, unless you invoke Short-Circuit.

Maintaining this form requires Concentration, as if concentrating on a spell, and the transformation lasts for up to 1 minute.

When you transform, your mortal flesh begins to burn away as fuel for the monstrosity you have released. Your appearance and demeanor distort dramatically as violent blue lightning consumes your body and bloodlust overwhelms your former composure.

While Mythical Beast Amber is active:

• Your Speed increases by 10 feet.

• The liquid-conduction restriction of Greek Fire is suspended. Water and similar liquids no longer interfere with your electrical abilities.

• You cannot use Greek Fire's chlorine-gas effect.

• You can compress your body into an extremely thin current of lightning to traverse confined spaces.

• You gain access to Full-Circuit, Fleeting Ripples, Thunderous Roar, and Short-Circuit.

You can end Mythical Beast Amber at any time without taking an action.

If the duration expires, you end the form voluntarily, or your Concentration is broken, you immediately return to your normal body.

When you return, your body is covered in severe electrical burns and scars. These injuries gradually heal until disappearing when you finish your next Long Rest.

Living Lightning

While Mythical Beast Amber is active, you can compress yourself into an extraordinarily thin bolt of electricity and move through narrow or confined passages in 5-foot increments.

If you are touching a continuous conductive material, you can travel through or along that material in this electrical state.

While in initiative, this movement still expends your movement normally.

Outside initiative, you can repeatedly travel through an uninterrupted conductive path in consecutive 5-foot increments, allowing you to cross extraordinary distances through structures such as continuous metal pipes or wiring.

Electrical Translation

Whenever Mythical Beast Amber or another feature of this subclass transforms your body into lightning or electrical energy, anything in direct contact with your body that you are capable of carrying transforms and travels with you.

This includes your worn and carried equipment and can include another creature if you are capable of carrying it.

An object or creature beyond what you could reasonably carry does not travel with you merely because it is touching you.

Full-Circuit

You temporarily melt away your remaining physical structure and unchain your electrical form.

You can use Full-Circuit twice, regaining all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

As an Action, choose one creature within 30 feet and make the following attack:

Ranged Weapon Attack: your Proficiency Bonus + your Dexterity modifier to hit, range 30 ft., one creature.

Hit: 8d4 Lightning damage.

On a hit, you transform into a stunning burst of dark-blue lightning streaked with vibrant black undertones and surge directly through the target.

You can strike or travel through a total number of targets equal to your Dexterity modifier, to a minimum of one, including the initial target.

After striking the initial creature, each remaining jump must target another eligible creature or conductive object within 30 feet of your current target.

If you choose a creature, it takes 8d4 Lightning damage automatically, requiring no additional attack roll.

If you choose a conductive object, it takes no damage, but it still counts as one of the targets you can travel through.

You can alternate repeatedly between the same eligible creatures, allowing your electrical form to rebound between them.

After each jump, the next 30-foot range is measured from the creature or object you most recently reached rather than from your original position.

You can end the sequence early at any time.

When the sequence ends, you rematerialize in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the last creature you electrocuted or the last conductive object through which you traveled. Whenever possible, you appear directly behind the final creature.

Your sudden reappearance can provide an appropriate situational benefit to a subsequent attack at the DM's discretion.

If you miss the initial attack, Full-Circuit immediately ends. Your Action and the use of the feature are still expended.

Fleeting Ripples

While Mythical Beast Amber is active, your physical presence leaves unstable electrical impressions behind.

Whenever your body contacts a surface or passes through a space, excessive electricity briefly radiates outward in tightening circular ripples before fading.

A ripple affects a 5-foot-radius area around the point of contact.

A creature caught in one of these ripples takes your Living Circuitry Contact Damage.

A creature can take Contact Damage from Fleeting Ripples only once per turn.

This is separate from the normal Contact Current of Living Circuitry. A creature can therefore take your Contact Damage once from Fleeting Ripples and separately through direct contact with Living Circuitry during the same turn.

Thunderous Roar

You deliberately distort and partially dissolve the structure of your throat to release an uncontrolled burst of charged sound.

You can use Thunderous Roar 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 release a devastating roar in a 15-foot cone.

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

On a failed save, a creature takes 8d8 + your Dexterity modifier Thunder damage.

On a successful save, it takes half as much damage.

Short-Circuit

Your mortal body is merely another limitation waiting to be burned away.

If you have already expended your use of Mythical Beast Amber, you can activate it one additional time before finishing a Long Rest by invoking Short-Circuit.

Doing so permanently sacrifices the structural integrity of your current body.

When this use of Mythical Beast Amber ends for any reason, your physical body does not reform. Instead, your consciousness remains as a free, sentient current of blue electricity.

You must transfer yourself into a conductive object within 5 feet.

Once you enter the object, your consciousness becomes trapped within it.

While inhabiting the object:

• You use the object's AC and Hit Points, as determined by the DM.

• You cannot move using your normal Speed.

• You remain conscious and can speak normally.

• You can continue using your class and subclass features.

• The object becomes permanently electrified. Whenever a creature makes direct physical contact with it, that creature takes 1d4 Lightning damage.

Electrical Silhouette

Whenever you use a feature while inhabiting an object that would normally require your physical body to perform it, your monstrous electrical form momentarily manifests as a silhouette around the object.

The silhouette exists only for the instant required to perform that feature, whether the feature uses an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction.

It can form limbs, a throat, or any other temporary structure required to perform the feature, but it does not restore your physical body and provides no additional mechanical benefits.

If the feature transforms you into lightning, electrical energy, or otherwise moves your electrical form to another location, the conductive object you inhabit travels with you and arrives at your destination as part of the same movement.

Immediately after the feature resolves, the silhouette disappears and your consciousness returns completely to the object you inhabit at its new location.

Destruction of the Vessel

If the conductive object you inhabit is destroyed, your electrical consciousness is forcibly released.

If another conductive object is within 5 feet of the destroyed vessel, you can immediately transfer yourself into that object without taking an action.

If no eligible conductive object is within 5 feet, you automatically suffer three failed death saving throws and die.

Rebuilding Your Body

Even after destroying your original body, you retain one final means of reconstructing it.

While outside initiative, if a mass of natural mud composed of earth and water is within 5 feet of the object you inhabit, and that mass weighs at least as much as your former body, you can begin reconstructing yourself.

You must remain undisturbed for 1 minute, during which you electrify the mud and restructure it at an atomic level.

At the end of the minute, make a DC 15 Intelligence (History) check to determine how accurately you remember your former body.

On a success, you recreate your previous body down to its finest physical details.

On a failure, you still create a completely functional body, but it possesses noticeable physical deviations from the original at the DM's discretion.

Your consciousness transfers into the completed body, which has its full Hit Points.

You can successfully reconstruct a body through this feature only once for this character.

Once you have done so, you can never reconstruct another body through Short-Circuit again. Finishing a rest, receiving a new body, being resurrected, or using any other feature does not restore this capability.

HBB Note: The prerequisite for Mythical Beast Amber exists because the technique requires you to completely understand your own body before you can consume it as fuel and surpass its limitations.

15th Level: The Sprawling Web

You can momentarily unravel your entire body into a majestic network of branching lightning.

You can use The Sprawling Web 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.

Sprawling Web

As an Action, you transform into a sprawling burst of electricity and travel up to 30 feet in any direction to an unoccupied space you can see.

Your electrical path forms a 15-foot-wide line between your starting space and destination.

Each creature in the line takes 6d10 + your Dexterity modifier Lightning damage.

You then rematerialize at the destination.

Fleeting Web

Alternatively, you can use The Sprawling Web as a Bonus Action.

When you do, you travel in the same manner, but creatures in the line take only 2d10 Lightning damage.

Using either version expends one use of The Sprawling Web.

Your Electrical Translation rule applies to both versions of this feature.

18th Level: God of Lightning

You stop behaving like something that merely produces electricity.

For a few violent moments, the sky itself becomes part of your cursed technique.

You can use God of Lightning once, and you regain its use when you finish a Long Rest.

As an Action, you summon an enormous rotating vortex of black thunderclouds above you.

When you activate this feature, the point directly beneath the center of the vortex becomes the center of a 120-foot-radius storm arena.

The storm arena remains fixed at that location for the entire duration of this Action. It does not move with you when you use Lightning Step.

The vortex forms at least 20 feet above the arena and, whenever the environment permits, stretches upward toward the highest available atmospheric altitude.

During this Action, you can call down three lightning bolts, resolving them one at a time.

For each bolt, choose one creature within the storm arena that the lightning can physically reach.

A creature can be targeted by more than one of these bolts, including all three.

The target takes 8d8 + your Dexterity modifier Lightning damage.

Lightning Step

Immediately after a creature takes damage from one of these bolts, you can transform into electrical energy and instantaneously rematerialize in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of that creature, preferably directly behind it.

This movement requires no additional action and is part of God of Lightning.

Moving through Lightning Step does not reposition or recenter the storm arena.

Your Electrical Translation rule applies to this movement.

Thunder God's Assault

God of Lightning also allows you to weave your normal attacks between the descending bolts.

During the Action used to activate God of Lightning, you can make a number of attacks equal to the number you could normally make when you take the Attack Action.

You can make any number of those attacks immediately after rematerializing beside a creature struck by one of your lightning bolts.

After resolving the attacks you wish to make at your current location, you can call down another bolt, use Lightning Step again, and continue the sequence.

You can distribute the attacks granted by this feature among any of the creatures you reach through Lightning Step in any combination.

The total number of attacks made during God of Lightning can never exceed the number of attacks your normal Attack Action would allow.

You can therefore strike the same creature with several bolts, repeatedly return to it through Lightning Step, or move between several different creatures as the sequence progresses, provided every creature targeted by a lightning bolt remains within the original storm arena.

Once all three lightning bolts have been expended, or you choose to end the sequence early, God of Lightning ends.

The storm arena and thundercloud vortex disperse immediately when the Action ends.

Shelter From the Storm

A lightning bolt must be capable of reaching its target from the storm above.

If a creature is protected by sufficiently thick or durable overhead cover, the bolt attempts to penetrate that obstruction.

Whether the lightning successfully breaks through or is stopped by the material is determined by the DM according to the thickness, construction, and durability of the obstruction.

If the bolt cannot reach the target, that bolt is expended without damaging the creature.

Darkest Cloud Traits

A lightning-wielding Curse Sorcerer who weaponizes electricity, travels as lightning, and eventually turns the battlefield into a storm arena under their control.