Madness Domain

Wherever there are minds, there is madness. Where there is madness, there is chaos. And where there is chaos, there is power. Some clerics choose to follow the mad deities to further their ambitions, while others worship them to cure themselves of their own poisoned minds. In practice, clerics of madness often use deception and trickery to hide their allegiance by posing as worshippers of other gods, or by hiding their religious proclivity altogether, due to the taboos surrounding their dark deities.

Gods of madness seek to spread insanity, and thus their influence, throughout the multiverse. These deities include Cyric, Ghaunadaur, Mak Thuum Ngatha, and Tharizdun.

Variant: Madness Effects

At the DM's discretion, you can use the madness effects in the Dungeon Master's Guide for the features of this subclass. If you do so, the subclass changes in the following ways:

• Whenever the Madness table is used, use the Indefinite Madness table instead.
• For Gaze of the Abyss, the creature is subjected to an effect from the Short-Term Madness table instead of being driven insane.
• For Touch of Madness, the creature is subjected to an effect from the Long-Term Madness table instead of being driven insane.

The durations of the effects and the requirements to end them don't change under the variant.

Madness Domain Spells

Cleric Level	Spells
1st	bane, hideous laughter
3rd	detect thoughts, suggestion
5th	hypnotic pattern, sending
7th	confusion, phantasmal killer
9th	contact other plane, modify memory

Raving Mad

When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency in the Deception skill.

Moreover, you learn the vicious mockery cantrip. It counts as a cleric spell for you, and it doesn’t count against the number of cantrips you know.

Muddled Mind

Starting at 1st level, your mind is shrouded in divine madness. You determine how your madness manifests by rolling on the Madness table or by choosing an option from it. A character flaw from the table lasts until cured by greater restoration or more powerful magic. If you ever lose the flaw, you gain another one of your choice from the table the next time you finish a long rest.

In addition, while you have the flaw, your thoughts can’t be read by telepathy or other means, unless you allow it.

Madness

Channel Divinity: Gaze of the Abyss

At 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to cause temporary insanity.

As an action, you present your holy symbol, and each creature of your choice that can see you within 30 feet of you must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or be driven insane until the end of your next turn. An insane creature can't take actions, can't understand what other creatures say, can't read, and speaks only in gibberish. A creature that is immune to psychic damage can't be affected by this feature.

The effect ends early for an affected creature if it takes any damage or if someone else uses an action to shake the creature out of its lunacy.

Befuddling Curse

At 6th level, you invoke intrusive thoughts to erode the psyches of others. Whenever a creature you can see fails an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw against one of your cleric spells or features, you can curse that creature until the end of your next turn. The next time the creature makes a saving throw, it must subtract 1d4 from the save, and the curse ends.

Potent Spellcasting

Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.

Touch of Madness

At 17th level, you are a true harbinger of madness. As an action, you blast the mind of a creature you touch, attempting to shatter its sanity. The target takes 4d10 psychic damage and must make a Charisma saving throw. A creature that has a character flaw from the Madness table or is under the effect of mind blank automatically succeeds. On a failed save, the target falls under the following effects:

• Its Charisma score becomes 1.
• It's driven insane. An insane creature can't take actions, can't understand what other creatures say, can't read, and speaks only in gibberish. A greater restoration spell or more powerful magic is required to rid a creature of this effect.
• It gains a new character flaw from the Madness table that lasts until cured.

Whenever the target finishes a long rest, it can repeat its saving throw against this feature. On a success, the effects end, but it keeps the character flaw that it gained.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.