Base Class: Sorcerer
Your innate magic comes from aberrant life force that was imbued in your bloodline in the days of yore. Most often, sorcerers with this origin trace their lineage along a line of freed thralls, or occasionally from a reformed aberration's attempt to assimilate into society, although the latter is rare. Being descended from an aberration, some of the physical traits that present themselves make you prone to hiding from common folk.
Aberration Ancestor
At 1st level, you choose one type of aberration as your ancestor. The ancestor you choose bestows an ability upon you, as well as physical characteristics, which are up to you and the dungeon master.
Aberrant Ancestry
Aberration |
Ability |
---|---|
Aboleth |
Telepathy up to 120 ft |
Beholder |
Area of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, in a 15 ft. cone. At the start of each of your turns, you decide which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active. The area works against your spells, as well as any of your allies' |
Flumph |
Immunity to any effect that would sense emotions or read thoughts, as well as all divination spells |
Gibbering Mouther |
Immunity to psychic damage |
Grell |
Blindsight up to 60 ft |
Mindflayer |
All spells cast are cast without material, somatic, or verbal requirements |
Morkoth |
Swim speed is double normal movement speed. |
Neogi |
30 ft. climb speed on difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check |
Otyugh |
One arm is replaced with a tentacle. The tentacle can be used for unarmed strikes, but has a reach of 10 ft., and deals (1d8 + CHA) bludgeoning damage. If the target is Small or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 10 + CHA) and restrained until the grapple ends |
Slaad |
Regain hit points equal to your proficiency bonus at the start of your turn if you have at least 1 hit point. |
You can speak, read, and write Deep Speech.
Aboleth
Aboleth Ancestor
Beholder
Beholder Ancestor
Flumph
Flumph Ancestor
Gibbering Mouther
Gibbering Mouther Ancestor
Grell
Grell Ancestor
Mind Flayer
Mind Flayer Ancestor
Morkoth
Morkoth Ancestor
Neogi
Neogi Ancestor
Otyugh
Otyugh Ancestor
Slaad
Slaad Ancestor
Far Realm Armor
As the anomalies in your blood increase in power, physical traits of your eldritch ancestors to emerge. As a result, parts of your skin secrete a thin layer of mucous that allow you to avoid incoming attacks. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 15 + your Dexterity modifier.
Eldritch Consumption
Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell that deals psychic damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll of that spell. Simultaneously, you can spend 1 sorcery point to gain health equal to half the damage dealt by the spell.
Otherworldly Levitation
At 14th level, you learn how to control vertical position of you and others with mere force of will, gaining a flying (hover) speed equal to half your current speed.
You can also cast Levitate at will a number of times equal to your CHA modifier per long rest.
Presence of Insanity
Beginning at 18th level, you can channel the eldritch insanity of your aberrant ancestor, causing those around you to become confused and frightened. As an action, you can spend 5 sorcery points to radiate an aura of confusion and fear to a distance of 30 feet. For 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were casting a concentration spell), each hostile creature that starts its turn in this aura must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be under the effects of the Confusion spell and frightened until the aura ends.
I think this class is very overpowered, and may need some balancing in the future. Otherwise, it does seem like it would be fun to play!
Feel free to make your own version! WotC already did in their UA lol.
I really like the idea/concept of this subclass! Do I have permission to try to create my own more balanced variant of this subclass? Also, I am sorry so many people were just saying mean things about it. While it is unbalanced in my opinion, those people are not trying to help you make it more balanced in any way! I think if someone posts a comment on an article it should either be positive or it should be helpful feedback/advice. I think that the only too unbalanced thing is the aberrant ancestry. mrllamacorn3 made a very insightful comment that could be used to improve it! Also maybe change the far realm armor of debuff it to a 11 or 12+con. Con because one, most sorcerers have a lower con and two, I think it makes more sense in this case... You could also ask others for ideas to replace far realm armor! Anyway, that is all I have to say.
so is the mind flayer one it makes all your spells free other then spell slot restriction
Barbarian: I use my own muscles to block against blows!
Monk: I use my calmness, awareness, and lightness to defend myself!
Dragon Bloodline Sorcerer: My dragon ancestor has shown itself and I have a layer of protective scales on me!
Aberrant Bloodline Sorcerer: im slimy so my lv 1 unarmored ac peaks at 18, while yours is a mere 16
>like yeah i could spend all night destroying this and telling you how broken it is but i need to sleep
Yeah, OP, just know the only thing keeping your sanity and dignity in tact is THIS guys bed time. You got lucky.
i think it is too OP because at level one your AC is 15 plus your DEX and you have a choice to basically cast a level 8 spell at level one. if you pick on of the other ones they are quite balanced in ability. the beholder one is overpowered
Yeah, the Ancestry party needs a total rework, try looking to the barbarians animal totems to see how they balanced their stuff. Far Real Armor could be workable but id suggests looking at a race like Lizardman or the tortun and mold it after there natural AC ability. The 6th and higher skills seem totally fine to me.
NP!
You are the first to give me some actual advice, and it is much appreciated!
i think the level 6 and up features are good, and some of the base features.
aboleth: telepathy to 120 ft. with no restrictions is a touch op, especially considering the restrictions placed on things like great old one warlocks and ghostwise halflings. also, telepathy isnt all to terribly unique to aboleths- 5/10 of the monsters you hav included as ancestors have it. i would say a daily casting of charm person without components would be more thematically appropriate.
beholder: this is kind of op, given that antimagic field is 8th lvl, and this can negate the abilities of many traps and enemies with no restrictions. i would personally say it can be active for your con modifier in minutes, minimum 1.
Flumph: good and balanced.
Gibbering mouther: i can not name any immunities at first level- because they are overpowered. i would give resistance or the ability to tuen the ground in a 15 ft sphere around you difficult terrain, one of the less powerful abilities of the mouther.
Grell: i can name two features even faintly resembling blindsight for players- the rouges blindsense, you know where any invisible creatures within 10 feet of you are if you can hear, gained at 14th level, and the rangers feral senses, which ignores disadvantage based on being unable to see the target, and the ability to detect invisible creatures within 30ft of you- if they arent hidden from you and you arent blinded or deafened, gained at 18th lvl- now consider that this is, at level 1, better than both of these. i would heavily drop the range and make it take an action and last for 1 minute, needing a rest to recharge it. or pick a different, easier to work with aberration.
mindflayer: This just invalidates subtle spell and the purpose of having valued and/or consumed material components. if you drop one level into this, and all others into cleric, you can gain access to free resurrections whenever you want. or anything else really. i would just go with a weakened mind blast tbh.
Morkoth: a fast swimming speed is nice, but if your going for grandeur, a 1/rest spell reflection to a shorter range would be better- and help it keep pace with other options.
Neogi: decent, but maybe have the climb be the characters speed -10 feet rather than 30- spider climb can be overpowered.
Oteyugh: this one is good. maybe make it a free attempt to grapple on a hit?
Slaad: ungodly potent at low levels, but more balanced at higher levels. cant think of a way to improve this for balance regardless of level.
I really like the higher level features though! (side note- deep speech has no written language)
Bro, how are you so epic? teach me the ways o' wise master...
this is broken just from level one aboleth, gibbering mouther, beholder, flumph, grell, mindflayer, neogi and slaad are all broken interms of there power level heck a barbarian could multi class into this 1 level and get immunity to the only damage type that effects them for full damage if they wanted
like yeah i could spend all night destroying this and telling you how broken it is but i need to sleep
here is my Discord Foo#0895 add me and ill destroy this for you another time