Thornhearted

You’ve torn out your heart as an offering to the Blackthorn Grove after braving the Maze of Blood and resisting the temptations of the Fields of Acedia. In place of your heart, a pulsing, beating, writhing mass of thorns has grown and made you whole. The lifeblood of the world itself runs through your veins, granting you power and passion alike to fulfill your purpose, whatever that may be. The trials and suffering of your past beckon you to make amends or take your revenge, but the feeling of grass under your feet and the sunlight upon your face is enough to help you understand the worth of life. Wander alone no longer, for even in death the Grove shall grant you a home.

Traits of the Thornhearted:

Warlocks who draw power from the Blackthorn Grove are called thornhearted and are often secretive about their origins, instead preferring to converse about more pressing matters. Their secrecy is often born of necessity, as most have enemies that would love to see them dead. Consider adding one or more of these traits when creating a warlock or after drawing heavily from the power of the Grove.

1: You smile and laugh without reservation.

2. You sleep on bare earth when outdoors.

3. You weep openly when you feel despair. 

4. You eat raw meat whenever you get the chance.

5. You move constantly, even when still. 

6. You refuse to surrender without a fight. 

7. You dislike cities and urban areas.

8. People often wonder about the nature of your powers. 

9. You make inspiring speeches with surprising frequency.

10. You break into song on beautiful days.

11. Your flesh seems to ripple under your skin.

12. Your irises become blood red with green streaks.

13. You seem fit in perfectly natural environments. 

14. Your facial features become accentuated by small plant-like growths that cover your cheekbones or brow. 

15. Your limbs become long and branch-like.

16. Your teeth look like wicked thorns.

17. Your hair becomes long strands of grass and leaves.

18. Wooden horns emerge from your head.

19. Your fingernails become sharp and barbed. 

20. Whenever you cast a spell, your Blackthorn heart pulses with crimson energy.

Expanded Spell List

The Blackthorn Grove 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.

Blackthorn Grove Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	entangle, hunter's pace
2nd	heartripper, replenish
3rd	plant growth, skewering vines
4th	bloodthorn, cage of briars
5th	overwhelming emotion, tree stride

Blackthorn Heart

At 1st level, you have torn out your heart and replaced it with something otherworldly, granting you the will to survive. You ignore nonmagical difficult terrain. Whenever you fail a death saving throw, your Blackthorn heart bursts from your chest and lashes out with life-stealing briars toward the nearest hostile creature. Make a melee spell attack against an enemy within 15 feet of you. On a hit, the creature takes magical piercing damage equal to your warlock level, and you regain hit points equal to the damage dealt.

After you recover hit points using this feature, you cannot make this attack again until you finish a short or long rest.

Apathy is Death

At 6th level, you can use your reaction to surge with purpose and haste whenever you make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw. You gain advantage on the saving throw, can move up to half your speed, and can make a single weapon attack before the result of the roll is revealed.

Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Arboreal Guardian

At 10th level, your purpose is not merely to exist, but to safeguard life. Whenever a creature within 5 feet of you would take damage, you can choose to redirect half of the damage to you by shielding them with vines from your Blackthorn heart. Only the original target suffers any additional effects of the damage. If this damage reduces you to 0 hit points, you gain advantage on the first attack made by your Blackthorn Heart feature.

Seeds of Destruction

At 14th level, you realize the reason you have been blessed with this power and purpose: to spread the Blackthorn Grove.

As an action, or whenever you are reduced to 0 hit points and you fail to recover hit points using your Blackthorn Heart feature, you can choose to have the beginnings of a new Maze of Blood appear around you. The area within a 30-foot radius of you becomes difficult terrain as blood-hungry vines emerge from the assembled briars to drink their fill. A creature within the radius at the start of its turn must make a Constitution saving throw against your warlock spell save DC. A target takes 4d6 magical slashing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Allies make this saving throw with advantage. If summoned as an action, it lasts until the start of your next turn. If summoned when you are at 0 hit points, it lasts until you recover 1 hit point, or becomes permanent if you die.

The Maze can be summoned once as an action, and this use recovers whenever you finish a long rest. The Maze can also be summoned once when you are at 0 hit points, and this use recovers whenever you finish a long rest. This means that the Maze can be summoned twice per long rest on separate instances if both of these circumstances are met. 

Blackthorn Grove Eldritch Invocations

You gain access to the following Eldritch Invocation options. These options are granted as additional options, and you must still follow all rules regarding the prerequisites for invocations and amount of invocations you are allowed to have.

Awakened Blade

You can choose to create a weapon from polished black wood and wicked spines using your Pact of the Blade feature. While you maintain concentration on a spell cast using a warlock spell slot while wielding this weapon, dense foliage covers your skin, causing your AC to equal 17 if it would normally be lower.

(Publisher note: there is no way to automatically change your AC when casting/holding a concentration spell. Please be aware of this feature)

Book of the Blackthorn

During a short or long rest, you can choose to create an effigy from plant material, weaving and shaping it into a heart. Over the course of one minute, you can choose to replace the heart of a dead creature with this effigy, causing it to rise as a zombie with 1 hit point. The zombie will unerringly seek a path towards a destination you name at the time of this ritual. It will ignore any creatures it encounters and will not pause or stop unless it is destroyed. Once the zombie reaches its destination, it will fall to the ground and a sapling will sprout from the corpse. If you create a new effigy, the previous one ceases to function, and the zombie crumbles to the ground, a lifeless corpse once more.

Nightshade's Embrace

Whenever you deal damage with a cantrip or weapon attack, you can use your bonus action to attempt to overwhelm one target with a deadly poison. The next time the target takes bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage before the start of your next turn, they must they must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your warlock spell save DC or become poisoned until the end of your next turn. While they are poisoned, they are also blinded.

United Survival

If you have a bloodless wanderer as your familiar, it gains additional hit points equal to your warlock level.

As an action, you can touch a creature and transfer some of your life force to it. Sacrifice a number of hit points up to your warlock level. The target regains a number of hit points equal to the amount you sacrificed.