The WISE LINEAGE Class for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e)

Base Class: Sorcerer

WISE LINEAGE

Sources of a wise lineage go by many names - witch, wise woman, medicine man, hedge mage. By whatever name they are known, they practice a tradition of magic passed down from mother to daughter, father to son. Rather than send source children away to distant lands or risk them going mad, older witches teach them to gain a degree of control over their powers using techniques passed down thru families and covens for ages. Some whisper these techniques are taught by ancient nature spirits or that witches trace their bloodlline back to a mortal coupling with primordial spirits. Whatever the truth, sources of a wise lineage are known to be master seers, miraculous advisors, and expert healers in the rural villages. A source is a person born with innate magical abilities that are difficult to control once they have bloomed. In the Witcher setting this magic is known as The Power or Chaos; it is the raw unshaped pattern of elemental energy. Strong emotions and stressful situations usually work as the trigger for a source’s abilities to erupt; such unpredictable expressions of The Power are referred to as wild magic surges and they can have devastating consequences. Schools of sorcery, like Aretuza and Ban Ard, were created to help these children cultivate and control their powers, lest the abilities drive them mad. However, without such training, a source inevitably suffers increasing mental trauma. In the Witcher setting there are two bloodlines a source belongs to: either a Wise Lineage (witchcraft) or Elder Blood (ancient elven blood granting the power to traverse space and time).

WILD MAGIC SURGE

When your Source Weakness, or some other event you and your DM agree upon, would trigger a Wild Magic Surge, roll 1d10 on the table below.

1. The Witching Hour: A false eclipse effect occurs in a fixed area within 100 feet per Source level as a supernatural shadow covers the sun or moon, obscuring its light and ushering in untimely darkness. This effect lasts until the next sunrise. Witches (including yourself), hags, and nocturnal monsters gain advantage on their spell attacks and saving throws against their spells are disadvantaged for the duration. In addition, this darkness emboldens wicked beings that venture forth with greater than normal boldness.

2. Beneficium: A possessing spirit, haunting specter, or curse plaguing a person in the area is drawn into your body and mind until exorcised, put to rest, or dispelled. If you personally know someone who is possessed, haunted, or cursed, their burden is preferentially made your own.

3. Maleficium: Someone your hold ill feelings toward suffers disease, poisoning, an extremely unlikely accident, or other misfortune as your subconscious exerts itself. This “maleficium” leaves behind magical traces of the Source at the scene that witch hunters or others knowledgeable of the signs of witchery will recognize.

4. Wyrd: All humanoids within 50 feet per Source level are confronted by illusions of one possible destiny they may face, usually something grim or tragic. All temporary hit points, bardic inspiration dice, and magical “buffs” in the area are lost. Humanoids in the area must make a Charisma saving throw against your spellcasting DC or suffer long-term madness according to the DMG (1d10 x 10 hours).

5. Out of Body Experience: You collapse and are stunned for 1d6 rounds, but while stunned you benefit from a scrying spell revealing a place or person that relates to your current quest.

6. Hag’s Eye: You attract the attention of a powerful hag and become aware that this creature is now scrying you and those near you. You become frightened for the duration of the event. This fell observation causes minor supernatural events near you, such as milk souring, shadows that temporarily move independently of their casters, unusual animal behavior, and so on. People other than you in the observed area can make a Wisdom saving throw to feel the chill of being watched by something malevolent. They won't know the source though, and may assume it's you. Similarly, witch hunters or others knowledgeable of the signs of witchery will recognize the strange events surrounding you. The scrying continues until the next noon, or the next sunrise, whichever comes first.

7. Fell Mists: Supernatural mists descend on an area within 100 feet per Source level, though they do not follow you. These mists are a mix of lightly and heavily obscured areas, all sounds within are distorted to seem they come from the wrong direction, and ghost sounds echo in the mist. Additionally, these mists exacerbate superstitions of NPCs and PCs alike, playing up their flaws. Monsters like will-o-wisps and foglets are often drawn to the mists, and sometimes ghosts of the deceased will visit those within. The mists last until the next noon, or the next sunrise, whichever comes first.

8. Something Wicked This Way Comes: You experience a premonition of future events at the DM’s discretion, becoming blinded until the start of your next turn as your eyes turn a single solid color (e.g. black, misty silver, white). The premonition should center on a great evil like a black magic ritual, a king’s descent into madness, an impending raid on a village, the next victim of a monstrous killer, etc. Your close brush with pure evil taxes body, mind, and soul, incurring a level of exhaustion.

9. Anguish: A wave of mental anguish pours from you, affecting all creatures within 10 feet per Source level who suffer 1d10 psychic damage for every two Source levels (rounded up). A Wisdom saving throw against your spellcasting DC mitigates this damage by half. However, on a failed save the creature is incapacitated until the end of its next turn. A creature cannot be killed by this damage, only knocked unconscious.

10. Double Trouble: Roll twice and apply both effects. Reroll duplicate results.

WAY OF THE WISE

At 1st level, you gain proficiency with the herbalism kit and you can perform rituals. In addition, you gain the following spells at the listed sorcerer level. These spells do not count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.

1st level 3rd level 5th level 7th level 9th level

cure wounds, find familiar

lesser restoration, locate animals or plants OR augury bestow curse, remove curse

divination, locate creature

greater restoration, dream

CURATIVE FORENSICS

At 1st level, when you use a spell to cure a creature or remove a condition from a creature, you also get a glimpse of whatever creature or effect caused the damage or condition, learning the general appearance of the creature, the damage type of the wound or condition, and how long ago the wound or condition was inflicted. Additionally, when you attempt to diagnose a disease or identify a magical curse, your corresponding check is advantaged.

EVIL EYE

Starting at 6th level, you can frighten those who meet your gaze. As an action, choose one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the target can see you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the end of your next turn. Additionally, you can spend 1 sorcery point as part of your action to affect all enemies that can see you within 30 feet. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

GREATER DIVINATION

At 14th level, when you cast divination you may pose a question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity that will occur in an undefined period of time - even millennia in the future! You can also ask about events which have already occurred, with no limit on how long back in history your question goes.

WEAVER OF FATE

At 18th level, you can speak, read, and write all languages, you are under the effect of a permanent nondetection spell, and you can cast augury at-will.

Covens

A group of three or more Sources following the same Wise Lineage may form a coven, applying their combined magical power toward a common goal. Such witches recognize one of their number as the High Priestess - typically the eldest - whom the others are expected to obey, though never blindly. All members of the coven share a limited empathy with one another, able to tell when one of their number is in trouble, pain, or pleasure provided they are on the same plane.

A coven of witches adopts spiritual practices reflecting the nature of the tradition it represents, for example revering the triple-aspected goddess in one of her many forms. While a coven creates no stronghold of its own, the witches meet monthly on a Sabbath in a secret basement, ruins, abandoned temple, cavern, or similarly secluded place. This sacred site holds special significance for the High Priestess who can call upon clairvoyance to perceive the sacred site at-will provided she is on the same plane as the site.

When gathering, witches of the same coven can perform collaborative ritual castings, boosting the power of their rituals to have far greater effects at the DM’s discretion. Due to the danger witch hunters pose to covens, it is not uncommon for witches to makes allies among the local peasants, conceal themselves with magic, and to develop a secret language or other means of identifying one another.