Malediction Sorcery

Your being is suffused with maledictive energy. Whether because you were born under the light of a cursed star, were damned by forces beyond your control, or have hex users among the ranks of your ancestors. Whatever the case, and whether you view it as a gift or a curse, through a little bit of training, you can become quite skilled with the manipulation of this energy and cursing others.

 

The power of maledictive magic casts a peculiar pall over your material and immaterial being, and your soul struggles to remain alight amidst your inherent cursed energy.

Level 3: Maledictive Brand

Beginning at 3rd level, you can utter a reviled word of power, learning to use a special curse known as a brand. As a bonus action, you curse a creature within 60 feet of you with your brand, which only you and those you choose can see. While branded, the target’s speed is reduced by 10ft and their weapon attack rolls are reduced by an amount equal to your proficiency bonus . 

The brand lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are reduced to 0 hit-points, the target is reduced to 0 hit-points, or you are incapacitated. When you consume a brand, it is removed from the target and your brand's afflictions are nullified. 

You can only curse one creature at a time in this way, and a creature can only be affected by one brand at a time. You can curse creatures a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier (minimum once). You gain all expended uses of your Maledictive Brand when you finish a long rest. 

Level 3: Occult Detonation

Additionally at 3rd level, you have learned to overload your brand with your maledictive energy, causing it to explode. As an action, you can consume your brand and expend a sorcerer spell slot to deal force damage to the target. Have the branded target make a constitution save against your spell save DC. They take 2d8 + your charisma modifier on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. 

You can expend higher level spell slots to deal additional damage, 1d8 for each spell level higher than the 1st. 

For the purposes of features, abilities and other spells, Occult Detonation is considered a spell of the evocation school.  

Level 6: Cursebinder

By 6th level, your skill has increased significantly at manipulating your maledictive energy and how you use your brand. You can now brand multiple targets and are allowed to have 2 brands active at the same time. The number of simultaneous brands you can have active at once increases to 3 at 14 level, and to 4 at 18th level.

Also, whenever a branded creature within 60ft of you drops to 0 hit points before the brand’s duration ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn to move the brand to another creature within range without consuming it. 

Level 14: Embodied Occult Inversion

At 14th level, you've earned a deeper understanding of your innate energy, becoming able to multiply your negative energy together to produce positive and allow yourself benefits as a result.

As a bonus action, you can use sorcery points to regain hit points, equal to your charisma modifier + the number of Sorcery Points expended. Or you can expend three sorcery points to remove one point of exhaustion.

Level 18: Malefactor's Domain

At 18th level, your skill at influencing the world around you with your powerful malefactor’s magic has improved so much that, beyond just people, you have now learned to fill a space with your energy and impose your will upon targets inside it.

As an action, you can create a lair, centered on you, with a radius of 90ft. The lair space lasts for 1 minute. 

 Branded creatures suffer additional afflictions, inside this space as listed below;

• While inside your domain, you gain advantage on spell attack rolls made against a branded creature that has one or more of its allies within 5 ft of it.
• Immunities turn into resistance, resistances are removed, normal damage is turned into vulnerability.
• Those concentrating on spells must make concentration saves, equal to your spell save DC at the start of their turns. 

Additionally, while your lair is active you gain some additional actions you can make on your turn. You can make these actions on your lair’s turn by expending sorcery points. The lair actions follow the standard lair rules, and earns a 20 on the initiative order. You can’t use the same action twice in a row, and they are as follows;

• Astral Defenestration : As an action, on the lair’s turn, you can choose to detonate more than one of your active brands at once. To do so, you must still expend a spell slot as stated in the rules of the Occult Detonation feature, but you must also expend sorcery points. The number of sorcery points you must expend is equal  to the number of brands you would wish to detonate plus the spell level you're using to detonate it. So, if you wish to detonate 3 brands, and you expend a 7th level spell slot, you must use 10 sorcery points to accomplish this feat. All targets must make the constitution save, and damage still follows the same rules as stated in the Occult Detonation feature.
• Dereliction of Time : As an action, on the lair’s turn, by expending 13 sorcery points, you can force branded creatures to make a constitution save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the branded creature ages 1d4 times 10 years and suffers a level of exhaustion. 
• Converse Seminary : As an action, on the lair’s turn, by expending 10 sorcery points, you can force the branded creatures to make a wisdom save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, until the end of their next turn, they lose all forms of sensory perception, as though under the effects of the blindness/deafness spell, become muted, as though under the effect of the silence spell, and are temporarily confused, losing all sense of direction, rolling a d4 for the direction of their movement on their turn. 
• Celerity’s Abyss : As an action, on the lair’s turn, by expending 10 sorcery points, you can force the branded creatures to make a dexterity save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, until the end of their next turn, their movement is further reduced, becoming halved and the branded creature temporarily loses 1 point from their dexterity score.