Unlucky Shmuck

A weary, almost reflexive thought whispers in the back of your mind, a fragile mantra you’ve clung to through one too many disappointments: "Eventually, my luck's gotta turn around... right?" It is a question posed to the silent, indifferent universe, a plea for some fundamental law of equilibrium to finally kick in and grant you the favor you feel you are so long overdue.

You could not, in any conceivable sense, have been more wrong if you had actively tried to be. The universe, it seems, operates on a different set of principles—ones where your dice perpetually land on the losing number, where opportunity consistently passes by your door to knock on another's, and where romantic endeavors seem to dissolve into thin air just as you reach for them. This streak of misfortune is not confined to a single arena; it has been a comprehensive lesson in humility, touching your endeavors, your heart, and nearly every other facet of your existence.

Yet, amidst this pervasive gray, there exists a single, brilliant point of color and warmth: you have your friends. And in a beautiful, reciprocal act of grace, they have you. This is not a grand, dramatic alliance, but something far more profound—a little bond, forged in shared laughter and silent understanding, in inside jokes and unwavering support. Within the sacred space of that connection, you have come to a powerful, life-altering realization. You have built a safety net not out of chance, but out of choice and care. And as long as they are there, their hands outstretched, ready to catch you without judgment when you fall, you find yourself asking a new, more potent question: who, in the end, really needs luck?

"Hey man!"

Are your friends really lucky or can the enemies just not hit them? Either way you know you're still probably gonna miss.

You can channel your innate misfortune as a reaction when a creature you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You curse their luck or bless your own by twisting your own fate.

You can choose one of the following effects:

• Unlucky Twist: Force the creature to reroll the d20 and use the lower roll. After you do so, you must roll a d4. Your next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw before the end of your next turn has a penalty equal to the number rolled.

• Lucky Sacrifice: Force the creature to reroll the d20 and use the higher roll. After you do so, you must roll a d4. Your next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw before the end of your next turn has a penalty equal to the number rolled.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?!"

 

You are a vortex of misfortune, and your very presence invites chaos—both trivial and profound. You can willingly accept a cosmic debt to manipulate the circumstances around you.

Whenever you fail a D20 test you gain 1 Misfortune Point.

You can store a number of Misfortune Points up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). You can expend these points in the following ways:

• Twist of Fate (1 point): When you fail a d20 roll, you can choose to succeed instead. Narratively, this success is always accompanied by a sudden, ironic, and complication-laden twist of fate (e.g., you persuade the guard to let you pass because his pants suddenly fall down, making him too flustered to argue, but now he deeply remembers and resents you).

• Invite Calamity (2 points): You describe a minor, narrative misfortune you wish to befall a creature you can see (e.g., "a bird flies over and defecates on his head," "his sword belt snaps," "he slips on a loose cobblestone"). The DM has the final say on the effect, but it should grant that creature disadvantage on its next relevant d20 roll or provide advantage to someone opposing them.

All Misfortune Points vanish when you finish a long rest.

Punching Bag

You've learned to physically pull strings of misfortune from the world around you and wrap them like barbed wire around yourself and your foes.

As a bonus action, you can curse yourself and one creature you can see within 60 feet. Both you and the target are shrouded in visible, swirling bad luck until the end of your next turn. While shrouded this way:

• Both you and the target have disadvantage on the next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw you each make.

• You do not have disadvantage on CHA based checks. You also gain advantage on any CHA skill check you make during this time.

You can use this bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Additionally, when you fail an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw while this curse is active on yourself, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the curse immediately jumps to a different enemy of your choice within 30 feet of you. The new target becomes cursed (as above), and the curse is removed from you.

Huddle Up

You learn to radiate misfortune like a storm, pulling bad luck from your allies and redirecting it toward your enemies.

As a bonus action, you can activate an Aura of Borrowed Luck in a 20-foot radius around yourself. The aura lasts for 1 minute or until you’re incapacitated or dismiss it (no action required). You can use this feature once per long rest.

While the aura is active:

• Unluck Transfer: When you fail a saving throw, ability check, or attack roll, you may choose one enemy within the aura. That enemy gains vulnerability to the next instance of non magical damage they take.

• Fortune’s Shield: Allies in your aura cannot be critically hit.

Debt Fulfilled

You briefly become the living embodiment of catastrophic fate, forcing the world to conform to your cursed reality.

As an action, you unleash a Reign of Misfortune that radiates from you in a 60-foot radius for 1 minute. The area becomes shrouded in visible, swirling gray energy, and the following effects apply:

• Field of Broken Luck: All attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws made by enemies in the area cannot benefit from advantage. Any advantage they have is nullified for the duration.

• Aura of the Unfavored: Enemies in the area have vulnerability to all damage. However, you must roll a constitution saving throw against your spell DC. On a failure, you take necrotic damage equal to half the amount they took. On a successful save you take 2d10 necrotic damage.

• Weight of Fortune: As a bonus action on each of your turns, you can force one enemy of your choice in the aura to suffer a catastrophic lapse in luck. That enemy immediately suffers one of the following effects (your choice):

  • They fall prone.

  • They are disarmed of one weapon or item they are holding, which lands at their feet.

  • They are unable to take reactions until the start of their next turn.

  • They have their movement speed reduced to 0 until the start of their next turn.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.