The Gravebound

You’ve stepped into the Forbidden Graveyard, a sanctuary found on the boundary between life and death, where the rare few whose minds are attuned to this place come to wander as their bodies heal or slip away into the cold clutches of the night. Those who embrace the experience and seal shut the Gate of Souls within find themselves gifted with an understanding of both the living and the dead. Unknown to all but those like you, the Gate requires repayment for this mercy, and only the souls of others will do. Choose wisely, for all who cross your path are marked for collection by the Graveyard. It is up to you to safeguard them from that dark plane or to send them there to take your place in the cold embrace of death.

Traits of the Gravebound

Warlocks who have walked the line between life and death and endured the trials of this mysterious place are known as gravebound, as their fate is tied to the inevitable passage of the soul into the beyond. Consider adding one or more of these traits when creating a warlock or after gaining knowledge of the Graveyard’s forbidden arts.

d20 Trait

1 You avoid walking over graves and corpses whenever possible.

2 You occasionally forget to breathe.

3 You sometimes sleepwalk and awaken on bare earth.

4 You have a strange affinity for carrion birds.

5 You are overly eager to discuss death and decay.

6 You snap your fingers when you’re anxious.

7 You talk to corpses and expect a response.

8 You tend to twitch in an unnatural manner.

9 Your shadow sometimes whispers in the voices of the dead.

10 You appear skeletal and decayed in moonlight.

11 Your skin is always cool to the touch.

12 Your eyes are like those of a dead man.

13 Your flesh doesn’t normally bleed when cut.

14 Your heart beats only a few times per minute.

15 Clothing or armor you wear for long periods of time loses its color, becoming either pale white or dark black.

16 Your blood slowly becomes dust when exposed to air.

17 Your hair becomes pale and grows at an unusually high rate.

18 A scent of freshly turned earth seems to follow you.

19 When you cast a spell, spectral forms can be seen hovering around you.

20 Corpses twitch and shift while in your presence.

Expanded Spells

The Forbidden Graveyard lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The above spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Spell Level / Spell

1st / inflict wounds, mend flesh

2nd / see invisibility, suffer

3rd / phantom steed, sending

4th / dark empowerment, phantasmal killer

5th / hallow, legend lore

Rejection of the Crypt

At 1st level, your refusal to travel through the Gate of Souls has left a mark upon you that cannot be denied. You can add your Charisma modifier to death saving throws, and you gain immunity to effects that would reduce your hit point maximum. While you are at 0 hit points, you can still move, but you can’t take actions, reactions, or bonus actions.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is not a way for me to edit how you make death saving throws, so please keep this in mind when rejecting an early end!

Ghoulish Constitution

Starting at 6th level, your flesh is filled with the icy chill of the grave. You can choose to allow attacks against you to hit. Whenever you are hit with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to steal life’s precious warmth from your attacker. When you do so, you gain resistance to the damage dealt, and the attacker takes cold damage equal to your warlock level. If the attacker is reduced to 0 hit points by this damage, you gain temporary hit points equal to your warlock level. If you already have temporary hit points, increase those temporary hit points by this amount instead.

You can use this feature twice, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Keeper of Souls

Starting at 10th level, your gain a measure of control over the spirits that dwell in the Graveyard. Whenever a hostile undead within 60 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your warlock level. Also, you gain resistance to necrotic damage and immunity to effects that would kill you instantly without dealing damage.

Fear the Reaper

At 14th level, you are as implacable as the specter of death itself. You no longer age and cannot be magically aged. You gain immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions. As an action, you can mark a creature you can see within 30 feet of you with a terrible curse. When the creature takes damage, you can use your reaction to delay that damage and store it within a pool. At the end of each minute after the curse was cast, the target takes twice as much necrotic damage as is stored in the pool and the pool is emptied. This curse lasts for one hour or until the target dies.

Eldritch Invocations

These evocations are specific to the Forbidden Graveyard Patron and are offered as additional options to choose from when picking invocations. However, you are still limited to the amount of invocations granted per level, so please make sure you don't pick more invocations than you are allowed!

Creature of Carrion

If you have a haunted crow as your familiar, it gains additional hit points equal to your warlock level. While you have this familiar, it recovers a single use of its Shriek action whenever either of you reduces a creature to 0 hit points, and the saving throw DC of this action equals your warlock spell save DC.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I cannot edit another creature's stats outside of your own, such as a familiar. Please keep this in mind whilst adventuring with your companion!

Eyes of the Lost

As an action, you can choose to perceive through the senses of an undead creature within 120 feet of you until the start of your next turn. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.

Grim Guardian

While asleep, you gain resistance to all damage, and you automatically awaken when a hostile creature is within 15 feet of you. If you awaken in this way, you gain advantage on your first initiative roll within 1 minute.

Ledger of the Deceased

Whenever a creature that you can see within 120 feet of you dies or you touch a corpse, you can choose to have their name be magically inscribed in your Book of Shadows. That creature’s corpse is always considered to be present and whole within your Book. If your Book of Shadows is destroyed, all the names within are lost.

Scythe of the Lifetaker

You can create a two-handed weapon of polished bone and golden metal using your Pact of the Blade feature. This weapon deals radiant damage instead of its normal damage type. When you attack with this weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. On a hit, you can cast healing word as a bonus action using a warlock spell slot.

Soul-burning Incantation

Whenever you cast a cantrip that deals damage or make a weapon attack, you can use your bonus action to empower it with cruel energy. Each target hit gains disadvantage on ability checks until the start of their next turn. If an empowered attack reduces a target to 0 hit points or is used to attack a corpse, the target can’t be raised as undead or resurrected by an effect or spell cast using a spell slot lower than 6th level.