The Desert Lord

The desert keeps its secrets, and they are as innumerable and shining as the sands and snows themselves. Sorcerous Sultans and Tsarinas, Undead Pharaohs, Forgotten Gods, all have laid claim and waste to the never ending dunes, and now their power can be yours.

For a price.

Whether your patron is an ancient god, a primal elemental, a pharaonic lich, or something else besides, they all crave something. The desert is harsh and ancient, and it seeks whatever will sooth its hunger, be it knowledge, riches, or something far stranger. The Desert Lord is a being of immense arcane power, long thought dead but very much capable of enacting its will, especially through servants, thralls, and champions. Earth and wind are primal powers, and they come together under the heat of the sun to create wastelands your enemies will bake in. Seek knowledge, seek power, seek glory as radiant as the sun, but remember, you do it in service of your Lord, or not at all. Fail them, and your name will be but one more that rots beneath the sands, forgotten by all.

The desert keeps its secrets.

Addendum: a tundra is also a desert, and the effects of the Desert Lord may be easily converted to reflect cold damage and a more wintery aesthetic if so desired.

Expanded Spell List

The Desert Lord lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Desert Lord Expanded Spells

SPELL LEVEL	SPELLS
1st	Alarm, Create or Destroy Water
2nd	Flaming Sphere, Blur
3rd	Bestow Curse, Fireball
4th	Wall of Fire, Resilient Sphere
5th	Insect Plague, Wall of Stone

 

Desiccating Aura

Starting at 1st level you may use a bonus action to manifest the aura of the desert around you in a 15 ft. sphere of hazy air. Creatures within this range that are Plant, Elemental, Beast, or Humanoid take damage equal to your charisma modifier. The aura may last up to a minute or until you dismiss it as a bonus action. The heat shimmer produced by this effect grants you +2 AC against ranged attacks for the duration. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest. At the DM's discretion, wood, plants, ice, water, and other natural elements of simple constructs (such as naturally woven fibers) may begin to degrade in the proximity of this aura, rapidly desiccating, fraying or evaporating, as if exposed to ages of sand and heat in mere seconds. The field penetrates simple barriers, though it cannot penetrate solid stone or walls of force, and is stopped by materials more than 6 inches thick.

Shifting Sands

Your form becomes as shifting as the sands over which you stride. Starting at 6th level as a bonus action you may turn your body and all carried items into a mass of sand and move up to twice your movement speed in any direction. You may move through any space no smaller than 1 inch in diameter (you may at your DM's discretion, move through highly sand based objects such as glass or sandstone) and may move through an enemy's space without provoking attacks of opportunity, you may not end your turn within enemy space willingly. You are immune to damage while moving in this manner. At the end of your turn you turn back into your natural form. If you would transform within a space too small to hold you, you move back to the next space that can safely hold you. You may do this a number of times equal to your charisma modifier. All uses of this ability refresh on a short or long rest.

Desert Adaptability

Be it under a blazing sun or a freezing moon, the desert is inhospitable to all outsiders. Luckily that no longer applies to you. Starting at 10th level you may choose fire or cold resistance at the end of a long rest. If you select fire resistance and are in direct sunlight, you are instead immune to fire damage. If you select cold resistance and are in direct moonlight, you are instead immune to cold damage. If in a location such as a demiplane that does not possess true day or night, attain instead resistance to both fire and cold.

The Walking Wasteland

The desert and its Lord have bequeathed on you the life sucking power of the sand. Once per long rest, assume the true aura of the merciless desert. Starting at 14th level, as an action you may create a 30 ft. spherical field centered on you that moves with you. Any creature other than certain constructs that enters or starts its turn within the field must roll a constitution check against your spell save DC. On a successful roll they take 5d10 fire damage, on a failed roll they take 5d10 fire damage and gain one level of exhaustion.  Water Elementals and plants automatically fail this check. This ability can only be used once per long rest and lasts up to a minute or until dismissal.