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 find the things that have seeped in from the spaces beyond sanity and send them back where they belong.

Symbiotic Host

3rd-level Order of the Symbiont feature

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 at the base of your spine, a glowing crystalline eye in the center 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 hemocraft die in psychic damage that cannot be negated or reduced by anything (not even psychic damage resistance) 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.

The symbiont can be removed with an Arcana Check whose DC is equal to 10 + your proficiency modifier + your Intelligence 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.    

In the Character Builder, set the option for Symbiotic Host to Bound Form to activate the bonuses for that form on the character sheet.

Bound Form

Selecting this option has updated the character sheet with the features of your Bound Form.

Unbound Form

Your character is in their normal form. Change this option to "Bound Form" when the character has bonded with their symbiont.

Symbiotic Host Features

 3rd-level Order of the Symbiont feature

While you are bound to your Symbiont you have the following features.

 

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. You can't use this feature again until you haven't taken damage for 1 minute.

Organic Shell. 

While not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity + 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.

Strengthened Mind

3rd-level Order of the Symbiont feature

Starting when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, your experience surviving the Coupling has strengthened your mind and resolve. You have resistance to psychic damage and can add your Hemocraft die to saving throws against being Charmed and Frightened. 

Symbiotic Growth

7th-level Order of the Symbiont feature

At the 7th level, the bond you have with your Symbiont grows and you gain one of the following features of your choice.

Unnatural Resistance

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

In addition, as an action, you command your Organic Shell to dramatically "Harden" for 1 hour. This gives you resistance to all 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 hemocraft die, halved (rounded up), to Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks. Your speed also increases by 5 while bonded to your symbiont. 

In addition, as an action, you command your symbiont to "Speed Up" and stimulate your adrenal glands for 1 minute. This doubles your speed, you gain 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 hemocraft die, halved (rounded up), to Dexterity (Stealth) checks. In addition, you can use a bonus action to disengage. 

In addition, as an action, you command your Organic Shell to "Turn Invisible". In doing this 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 hemocraft 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 "Bulk Up" and 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 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 and your reach is increased by 5 feet. 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.

Blood Curse of Formication

11th-level Order of the Symbiont feature

At Level 11, your blood curse makes your enemy's skin crawl. You gain the Blood Curse of Formication for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

Blood Curse of Formication. As a action, a creature within 30 feet of you is unnerved and must use its action on its turn to take a Dodge, Disengage, or Hide action. This curse lasts a minute and at the end of each of its turns, the target can make a Constitution saving throw. On a success, the curse ends. 

Amplify. The cursed creature suffers 2d8 psychic damage, and suffers this damage again every time it fails its Constitution saving throw to end this curse at the end of its turn 

Blade Meld

11th-level Order of the Symbiont feature

At level 11, you learn how to further alter the composition of your organic shell and your symbiont's 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 attributes, 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 you 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 at the beginning or end of your turn.

If the weapon is ranged you still must have ammunition which can be used as normal or, during the 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 you 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. 

Brand of Weird

15th-level Order of the Symbiont feature

Your Brand of Castigation infects your target with symbiotic essence allowing you to pinpoint their presence. You can see a creature affected by your Brand of Castigation through solid objects up to a range of 30 feet. When attacking a Branded creature with your Blade Melded weapon they do not benefit from Half or Three-Quarters cover, these attacks gain 5 feet more of range and can move around corners. 

In addition, your body has grown more accustomed to the symbiont bonded to you. When you make your Symbiot Host saving throw during a long rest, you roll with advantage.

Twisted Amalgam

18th-level Order of the Symbiont feature

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 breathe or eat and can withstand pressure two times 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. At the beginning of your turn, you gain a hemocraft die + your Intelligence Modifier worth of temporary hit points (and only if you have no temporary hit points already, as they do not stack). However, if you take any fire or acid damage you lose this trait until the end of your next turn. 

When you fall below 0 hit points, your symbiont forms a protective cocoon around you, increasing your AC by 2, lowering your move speed to 0, and giving you 30 + your Intelligence 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 Intelligence 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. You can only use your symbiotic cocoon trait once per long rest.

The Baleful Watcher

Long protecting you from the might of the magic, your symbiont has become anathema to even the weave itself. If you make a successful saving throw against a spell or a spell attack misses it, you can use your reaction to choose another creature (including the spellcaster) you can see within 120 feet of you. The spell targets the chosen creature instead of you. If the spell forced a saving throw, the chosen creature makes its own save. If the spell was an attack, the attack roll is rerolled against the chosen creature.

In addition, as a bonus action, your organic shell creates an area of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, in a 30-foot-cone for 10 minutes. At the start of each of your turns, you decide which way the cone faces and can end this effect early at the end of your turns while it is active. You can use this feature again after a long rest.

The Untethered

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 which gains an additional +5.

No obstacle is too great for you to surmount. At the beginning of your turn, you can choose to become untethered for 10 minutes. Your movement is unaffected by difficult terrain, and spells and other magical effects can neither reduce your speed nor cause you to be paralyzed or restrained. You can also spend 5 feet of movement to automatically escape from nonmagical restraints, such as manacles or a creature that has you grappled. Finally, being underwater imposes no penalties on your movement or attacks. You can use this feature again after a long rest.