Order of the Symbiont

Created to fight an ancient war between planes, Symbionts are sentient parasites from a distant realm. Needing the life force of other beings, they actively seek out hosts to feed off their psychic energy, offering powerful boons to those who can survive the pairing. 

While fighting against alien forces slipping into their reality, a radical order of blood hunters discovered these Symbionts and began utilizing them as tools in their plight against the encroaching evil. Generations have passed and, using forbidden eldritch magics stolen from the Illithids, these hunters have warped and perfected these living weapons. Now grown in alchemical vats in the catacombs of their scattered keeps, initiates of this splintered order are bonded with a Symbiont while imbibing the Hunter's Bane in a ritual known as "The Coupling". During the torturous process, the pain shared between the host and parasite entwines their fate into one, launching them on a singular path. These adaptable hunters now comb the darkest reaches of the material plan to rid it of the things that don't belong, that seeped in from the spaces beyond sanity.

 

Symbiotic Host

Upon choosing this archetype at 3rd level, the latent symbiont within you has awoken. You may choose what this parasitic creature looks like and where it manifests. It could be a pulsating chitinous growth the base of your spine, a glowing crystalline eye in the centre of your chest, or something far more grotesque. Whatever it may be, it now shares your life force and, when you finish a long rest, will force you to make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure you take two of your rite die in psychic damage that cannot be negated or reduced by anything but sacrificing your reserve Hit Die. You may roll any number of Hit Die to negate this damage but those that you use will be expended until your next long rest. On a success nothing happens.

While bonded with your symbiont you gain the following features:

Organic Shell. While not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit. This organic shell covers your body and matches the aesthetic you originally chose for your symbiont.

Strengthen Mind. You have resistance to psychic damage and can add your Crimson Rite die to saving throws against being Charmed and Frightened. 

Changing Form. While out of combat your symbiont can alter the composition of the protective layer it exudes around your body. As an action you can change this organic shell into any style of clothing or armor. This change is purely cosmetic and once you take over 5 points of damage, your symbiont will revert to its natural form until you haven't taken damage for 1 minute.

The symbiont can be removed with a Arcana Check whose DC is equal to 10 + your proficiency modifier + your wisdom modifier. To do so, however, you must either be willing, unconscious, or dead. In doing so you take 2 rite die in psychic damage die and take 1 level of exhaustion. If your symbiont is ever removed it can survive 24 hours without its host and, due to the dark ritual of bonding you underwent, cannot bond with any other being. You can bond back with your original symbiont OR perform a dark ritual to reconstitute it over a long rest. You will undergo the same saving throw as you would having been bonded with it but do not receive the benefits of a long rest. 

Strange Pursuit

Upon choosing this archetype at 3rd level, you harness the unnatural magics of your parasite to aid in tracking. When you hit a target with a weapon that is imbued with your rite you may use your reaction to mark the target. Marking a target forcibly ends the rite imbuing your weapon (dealing no rite damage) but infects those hit with your parasitic essence. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw equal to [8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wis modifier].  On a failure the target has been marked for a strange pursuit. While marked you know the distance and direction between you and the marked target as your symbiont hones on the creatures life force. On a success the target fights off your viral essence and are immune to its effects for 24 hours. You may only have one marked target at a time and said mark will last for 24 hours until the magic wears off. When you use your reaction on an opportunity attack you may choose to mark the struck target. The mark can be removed with a greater or lesser restoration spell or if you fall unconscious or die. You may end your pursuit early as a bonus action.  This awareness fails if the creature is on another plane of existence.  You must be bonded to your symbiont to use this feature. 

Blade Meld

At level 7, you learn how to further alter the composition of your organic shell and your symbionts thirst for magic essence. You may take an hour and choose a weapon (non-magical or magical) to attune to. This weapon must be one you are proficient with, does not have the heavy or special attribute, and is not sentient or an artifact. During this attunement process your symbiont will consume the weapon and any enchantment that it holds, destroying it. Once consumed, your organic shell is able to reform itself around your weapon hand into the form of the weapon your last absorbed along with all of its properties (this resembles the weapon in function, but takes on the aesthetic you have chosen for your Symbiont). This weapon cannot be disarmed and is effectively part of your physiology, able to call it back into your symbiont with a free action.

If the weapon is ranged you still must still have ammunition which can be used as normal or, during consumption process, can be absorbed along with the weapon. You can also absorb said ammunition into yourself as an action and summon it during the loading process of an attack (ammunition absorbed keeps any magical properties it has). Like consuming weapons, consuming ammunition destroys it, but expending it during battle is treated as normal.

A consumed item does not count towards your attunement slots or the amount of weight your are currently carrying in your inventory. You can only have one weapon melded to you at a time and consuming another weapon will dispel any properties and enchantments from the previously consumed. This feature can only be used while bonded to your symbiont and the weapon melded is lost IF your symbiont is killed while removed. 

Aberrant Augmentation

At 11th level your symbiont has reached adolescence. As the creature grows within you it spawns a new host of abilities. Choose one from the four options below, while you are bonded to your symbiont you gain the chosen abilities permanently:

Unnatural Resistance

Your biological composition has gotten exponentially hardier during your time exposed to the symbiont. You are able to add your rite die, halved (rounded up), to Constitution checks and Constitution saving throws.

In addition, as an action, your Organic Shell dramatically Hardens for 1 hour, giving you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Unnatural Speed

Your bond to the symbiont has honed your reflexes to superhuman levels. You gain the ability to add your rite die, halved (rounded up), to Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks when you are bonded.

In addition, as an action, you command your symbiont to engorge your adrenal glands for 1 minute. This doubles your speed, you gains a +2 bonus to AC, you have advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and you gain an additional action on each of its turns. That action can be used only to take the Attack (one weapon attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object action. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Unnatural Stealth

Your symbiont warps the pigment of your skin, allowing you to blend into your surroundings. You gain the ability to add your rite die, halved (rounded up), to Dexterity (Stealth) checks when you are bonded to it.

In addition, as an action, you can choose to cast either Invisibility or Greater Invisibility on yourself without providing material, somatic, or verbal components.  Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Unnatural Strength

The symbiont bonds to your muscles giving you the ability to add your rite die, halved (rounded up), to Strength (Athletics) checks. You also count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity, the weight you can push, drag, or lift, and the weapons you wield (this does not stack with the racial "Powerful Build" trait).

In addition, as an action you command your symbiont to mutate outward for 1 minute. Your organic shell grows, doubling your size in all dimensions, and your weight is multiplied by eight. This growth increases your size by one category-- from Medium to Large, for example. If there isn't enough room for the you to double your size, you attain the maximum possible size in the space available. Until this mutation ends you also have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. Your symbiont also enlarges your Blade Melded weapons to match your new size. While these weapons are enlarged, your attacks with them deal 1d4 extra damage. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Weirden

By level 15 your body has grown accustomed to the strain your symbiont places on your body. When you made your Symbiotic Host saving throw during a long rest, you roll with advantage. 

On top of this, the viral essence you infect upon a Strange Pursuit target has grown more powerful, giving you the following benefits when this feature is utilized. The viral essence inside those who are marked forces them to roll at disadvantage against saving throws made against your Blood Maledicts. You can also spend a minute focusing in on the essence you left behind, entering a meditative state in which your speed is reduced to 0 and you cannot take any actions or reactions for the duration. This forces the marked target make a Wisdom saving throw [8 + Proficiency Bonus + Wisdom Modifier], if they fail you are able to see through your targets eyes as well as hear what they hear without them knowing for 1 hour. Once the hour passes you are forced out of their consciousness and, if you want to use said feature again, must go through the previous process. This feature also ends if you break concentration (willingly or not).  If they succeed they are immune to this feature for 24 hours and your mark ends.

Twisted Amalgam

When you reach level 18, the boundaries between your symbiont and yourself cease to exist, becoming one complete being. You now count as an Aberration along with your other creature types. Your symbiont can no longer be removed, instead, you may choose for it to lie dormant so that it can avoid detection from all but the most potent of magics (this also hides your aberrant nature). While it lies dormant you cannot use any of the abilities it has granted you, but can awaken it (and command it to sleep) with an action. However, when it is active, you no longer need to breath or eat and can withstand pressure two times of what a normal humanoid can withstand. On top of all of this, you may choose a final feature your symbiont has manifested in its adulthood:

It That Cannot Break

After countless battles together, your symbiont has learned to shrug off even the most deadly of blows. You regain 1d6 hit points at the start of your turn. However, if you had taken acid or fire damage since your last turn this trait doesn't function (you regain the use of this feature if you go a full round without taking either of these two damage types).

When you fall below 0 hit points, and you haven't taken fire and acid damage since your last turn, your symbiont forms a protective cocoon around you, increasing your AC by 2, lowering your move speed to 0, and giving you 30 + you constitution modifier in temporary hit points. While in this cocoon you can perform no actions or reactions, however, on your next turn you may expend a number of hit dice equal to your Wisdom Modifier to heal yourself. Once healed, you spend the rest of your turn tearing out of this protective shell (you may then go about proceeding turns as normal). If, while in the cocoon, said temporary hit points are reduced to 0, your cocoon is ruptured and you are unconscious and must make death saves as normal as normal. can only use your symbiotic cocoon once per long rest.

The Baleful Watcher

After feeling the wrath of countless mages, your symbiont has adapted a simple, yet effective solution. An aberrant 3rd eye has sprouted from your organic shell that creates creates an area of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, in a 30-foot-cone. At the start of each of your turns, you decide which way the cone faces and can close and open said eye with a bonus action. If an enemy were to target the eye (your current AC + your constitution modifier) and deal more than 10 + your constitution modifier in damage to it while it is open, it will close and have to regenerate. To regenerate your eye you must spend an action and expend a number of your hit dice until you roll enough to match the damage taken OR take a long rest. Damage done to the eye counts as damage towards you, as it is technically a part of you. 

The Unbound

Walking is a rudimentary way of movement that your symbiont has remedied. Whether it be sprouting insect like wings, a viscous like foot webbing, or even manifesting a disruption in gravitational fields around you; You gain a flying speed and a swimming speed equal to your movement speed. 

They Who Walk Between

Through your union, your symbiont has grown to reject the physical limitations of the material plane, allowing you to walk through the places in between. You can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. Each creature you move through makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 1d10 psychic damage; no creature can take this damage more than once per turn. You take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object, terrain, or creature and are forcibly expelled into the nearest empty space.  If there i no empty space within your total movement speed you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, on a success you take 1d10 force damage and may continue for another turn until you must make this saving throw again with a DC that increases by 5 and damage that increases by 1d10 each time you make it. You may only continue for as long as you can hold your breath. If you fail your save, your character's molecular composition merges with its surroundings and they perish. You become wall.