College of Puppetry

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Makeshift Marionette

When you first join the College of Puppetry at 3rd level, you gain the ability to conjure puppets out of whatever materials may be nearby, or animate an existing puppet you have created in the past.

You can spend an action to summon a Tiny Puppet, or animate a previously created Tiny Puppet, as long as the target of your animation is within 50 feet and you are unrestrained (the summoning and commanding of a Puppet requires Semantic action). Alternatively, you can spend an action and one use of your Bardic Inspiration to summon (or reanimate) a Small Puppet instead. There must be one cubic foot of material present to make a Tiny Puppet, and three cubic feet of material present to make a Small Puppet, which is displaced (a la Mold Earth) when you make the Puppet. The material cannot be worn or wielded in any way (for example, you can't make a Puppet out of a suit of armor that someone is wearing).

The Puppet acts on your turn in any order, and gets one action and one movement. It cannot wield a weapon, but it can carry small objects (Tiny Puppets can carry up to 2lbs, and Small Puppets can carry up to 4lbs), it cannot activate any magical or attuned items, and it cannot move outside of a 50ft radius of you. Other than that, it can take any normal action (Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, Hide, Ready, or Search).

A Puppet lasts for 24 hours, or until it is destroyed. If a Puppet is not destroyed, it stays in the form of a Puppet, and can be held onto and animated again in the future. You can summon 1 Puppet at a time.

You can make Cloth, Ice, Crystal, Wood, and Dirt Puppets at 3rd level, Stone Puppets at 5th level, Metal Puppets at 10th level, and Mythril Puppets at 15th level. At 10th level, you also gain the ability to summon 1 additional puppet at a time (for a total of 2). 

Puppets have different properties based on the materials they were formed out of:

MATERIAL	TINY PUPPET	SMALL PUPPET
Cloth, Paper, or Plant Matter	4HP, 1 damage (slashing), 40ft speed Vulnerable to Fire and Slashing Damage, can only carry 1lb	6HP, 1 damage (slashing), 50ft speed Vulnerable to Fire and Slashing Damage, can only carry 2lbs
Ice or Packed Snow	4HP, 2d6 damage (cold), 20ft speed Vulnerable to Fire, Thunder, & Bludgeoning Damage	8HP, 2d6+4 damage (cold), 25ft speed Vulnerable to Fire, Thunder, & Bludgeoning Damage
Crystal, Glass, or Ceramic	12HP, 1d8 damage (piercing), 20ft speed Vulnerable to Thunder and Bludgeoning Damage	15HP, 1d8+4 damage (piercing), 25ft speed Vulnerable to Thunder and Bludgeoning Damage
Wood	15HP, 1d6+2 damage (bludgeoning), 20ft speed Vulnerable to Fire Damage	20HP, 1d6+4 damage (bludgeoning), 25ft speed Vulnerable to Fire Damage
Dirt or Clay	12HP, 1d6 damage (bludgeoning), 20ft speed Falls apart instead of remaining intact	15HP, 1d6+2 damage (bludgeoning), 25ft speed Falls apart instead of remaining intact
Stone	15HP, 1d8 damage (bludgeoning), 10ft speed Resistance to Piercing and Slashing Damage	18HP, 2d8 damage (bludgeoning), 15ft speed Resistance to Piercing and Slashing Damage
Metal	20hp, 2d8 damage (slashing or piercing), 15ft speed Can carry 15lbs, takes 2 turns of Concentration to summon	25hp, 2d8+4 damage (slashing or piercing), 20ft speed Can carry 30lbs, takes 2 turns of Concentration to summon
Mythril	20hp, 3d6 damage (slashing or piercing), 20ft speed Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage, and Magical Attacks; takes a ritual to summon. Lasts for 2 hours instead of 24.	25hp, 3d8 damage (slashing or piercing), 25ft speed Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage, and Magical Attacks; takes a ritual to summon. Lasts for 2 hours instead of 24.

 

 

Extension of Self

At 3rd level, you feel like you're good enough with the basics of puppetry to consider your constructs like an extension of your limbs.

On your turn in combat, you can forgo your action to instead manipulate your Puppet to cast a spell from your spell list, using its current range and position for the effects of the spell (for example, if one of your Puppets could move into touch range of an ally,  you could then cast Cure Wounds on them). The Puppet must forgo its own action if you use it like this, and once you use a Puppet in this way, you cannot do so again until after a short rest.

In addition to this, you can also spend 10 minutes meditating with a Puppet you're currently animating to throw your consciousness into the Puppet's body. When you do this, all other Puppets you are animating cease to be animated, your regular body falls unconscious, and you cannot summon any new Puppets while in this body. You take on the size, speed, attack, and hit points of the Puppet vessel, but can cast spells, activate magic items, perceive with your senses, and speak as you would in your regular body. Your normal body is unable to perceive any sensations or be woken by any nonmagical means while in this state.

You can stay in this state until your Puppet vessel's hit points drop to zero, until your regular body's hit points drop to zero, your regular body is woken up, or the current summoning duration for your Puppet ends (24 hours after when you first animated it). You can also choose to end this state voluntarily. When ended by any means, your consciousness is jettisoned back into your regular body instantaneously, wherever it was left. If the effect was ended by your regular body hitting zero hit points, you immediately go into death saves.

You have disadvantage on all checks and attack rolls for 1 minute when you first enter the vessel, and when you exit it, while your mind readjusts.

Cadaver Controller

At 6th level, you gain the ability to puppet humanoid corpses around like you would with your marionettes. If you do not currently have any active puppets, you can expend 1 use of your bardic inspiration to animate a dead humanoid within 10 feet of you. You must maintain concentration to keep the corpse animate.

The corpse has the stats it had in life, with half of its maximum hit points. Its physical stats and attack rolls suffer a -2 penalty for each full day it has been dead, and another -2 penalty for each (if any) dislocated or missing limbs. It shares any weapon proficiencies that you have for purposes of making attacks. It acts on your turn, and gets one action, one bonus action, and one movement. While you have a corpse puppet summoned, you cannot make any other puppets. The corpse puppet lasts for 12 hours before it falls limp, and cannot be affected again by this magic for 24 hours.

In addition to helping out in combat, you can convince onlookers that the corpse puppet is a living body with a successful Charisma (Performance) check, against onlookers' Wisdom (Insight) checks. Your roll suffers a -2 penalty for each day that the corpse has been dead, and another -5 penalty for every substantial wound the corpse bears (e.g. large gashes, broken limbs, collapsed skull, etc). Some wounds, like decapitation, may cause you to automatically fail this check, at your DM's discretion, but feel free to try and connive and haggle with them to find ways to disguise the corpse and pass the check. The corpse cannot speak, unless assisted with thaumaturgy, or inhabited with the Extension of Self feature of this class.

With Extension of Self, you may throw your consciousness into a cadaver that you are currently animating, which you can then speak and feel through, gaining all the senses and physical stats of the corpse. You must maintain concentration in order to keep the corpse animate; if you fail a concentration check upon taking damage, the corpse drops limp and your consciousness is thrown back into your body.

Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.

The Ultimate Puppet

At 14th level, you gain the ability to extend your puppeteering reach to living bodies.

If you have no other puppets active, as an action, you can force a humanoid in your sight to make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. If they succeed, they can tell that you were trying to exert control over their physical body. On a failed save, you gain complete control over the target's physical actions. You may then use semantics to issue the target simple commands as an action, similar to the command spell. You can command them to do anything, but if the target is physically incapable of completing it, they will just flail around as they try to complete the action At the end of their turn or after a command you make them do, or after taking damage, they can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. Each action you have previously made them do gives them a +2 bonus for the save. When the effect ends, you cannot control the target again for 24 hours, after which they have advantage on their saving throw for every subsequent attempt.

While being controlled, the target can only move and speak at your behest, but can perceive otherwise normally. When the effect ends, they are aware of everything that happened to them during the duration. If not ended by a successful saving throw or by your choice, the effect dissipates when you get more that 100 feet away from the target, or after 24 hours.

Once you use this feature, you cannot go so again until you've finished a long rest.