Base Class: Warlock
Not all patrons grant power through strength, knowledge, or forbidden secrets. Some offer only ruin.
Your patron may be an ancient witch buried beneath a thousand gravestones, a forgotten god of misfortune, a spirit born from humanity's curses, or a nameless force that feeds upon despair. Wherever it came from, it understands a simple truth: the deadliest wounds are often the ones that linger.
Those who forge a pact with the Withering Curse do not overwhelm their foes with raw power. They unravel them. A swift warrior finds their steps faltering. A master archer's aim begins to shake. A triumphant hero discovers that fortune has quietly abandoned them. Every curse is a thread, and with enough threads woven together, even the mightiest enemy can be brought low.
As a Hexweaver, you spread afflictions across the battlefield like a sickness. A single curse is an annoyance. Several become a nightmare. Your enemies watch helplessly as their weaknesses leap from one ally to the next, growing stronger with every failure. When the moment is right, you may consume those curses entirely, unleashing all the suffering they have accumulated in a devastating burst.
To others, your magic feels deeply unsettling. Wounds refuse to heal. Luck turns against the fortunate. Shadows cling too long. Victories become failures for reasons nobody can explain. Those familiar with your work often develop superstitions, avoiding your gaze, speaking prayers under their breath, or refusing to utter your name aloud.
A Withering Curse warlock is not a destroyer. They are a harbinger of inevitability. They do not strike the killing blow because their victims often defeat themselves long before that becomes necessary.
Hexweavers in the World
Many Hexweavers are feared as witches, omen-bearers, plague prophets, or wandering curse merchants. Some openly revel in that reputation, while others see their abilities as a burden.
A Hexweaver might be:
- A wandering hedge witch who sells blessings but secretly deals in curses.
- A grim exorcist who fights monsters using the same dark powers they wield.
- A noble whose family has served a curse-bound patron for generations.
- A fortune teller who learned that fate is easier to break than predict.
- A scholar obsessed with the supernatural mechanics of misfortune.
- A plague doctor whose remedies and afflictions come from the same source.
Whatever path they walk, all Hexweavers learn the same lesson:
A sword can kill a person. A curse can ruin an army.
Level 3: Hexweaver
Hex of Shattered Steps
The creature's speed is reduced by 10 feet.
Whenever it moves more than half its speed on its turn, it takes psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
Hex of Trembling Hands
The creature subtracts 1d4 from attack rolls.
Hex of Clouded Sight
The creature subtracts 1d4 from Perception checks and Wisdom saving throws.
Creatures farther than 30 feet away gain half cover against its attacks.
Hex of Broken Fortune
Once per turn when the creature succeeds on an attack roll or saving throw, roll 1d4.
On a 1, the success becomes a failure.
This hex then ends.
Hex of Weakened Resolve
The creature subtracts 1d4 from saving throws against your spells.
Hex of Withering Flesh
The creature cannot regain hit points.
Harvest Hex
When you deal damage to a creature suffering a Hex, you may remove one Hex from it.
Choose one effect:
- Deal 2d8 necrotic damage.
- Heal yourself for 2d8 HP.
- Teleport up to 30 feet.
- Force the target to make a Strength save or fall prone.
The curse is consumed.
This creates the gameplay loop:
Apply → Spread → Consume.
Level 6: Spreading Malediction
Your curses have learned how to take root in multiple souls at once.
Whenever a creature fails a saving throw against one of your spells or takes damage from a creature suffering one of your Hexes, you may spread one Hex affecting that creature to another creature you can see within 30 feet of it.
The new creature gains that Hex for the remaining duration.
Level 10: Greater Hexes
You learn stronger afflictions.
Hex of Fractured Mind
At the start of each of the creature's turns, it must succeed on a Wisdom save.
On a failure, it cannot take reactions and chooses either an action or a bonus action that turn (not both).
Hex of Grasping Shadows
The area within 10 feet of the creature becomes difficult terrain.
Whenever it starts its turn there, spectral hands lash at it for psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
Hex of Lingering Agony
Whenever the creature takes damage from one of your spells, it takes additional necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
You may now maintain up to 3 Hexes on a single creature.
Level 14: Cursestorm
Your maledictions become self-propagating disasters.
As an action, choose up to three creatures you can see that are suffering one or more of your Hexes.
For each chosen creature:
- Every Hex affecting it spreads to a different creature of your choice within 30 feet.
- A creature can receive multiple Hexes this way.
- Spread Hexes do not replace existing Hexes.
After all Hexes have spread, choose one of the following effects:
Harvest the Storm
Remove any number of Hexes currently affecting creatures.
For each Hex removed:
- The creature takes 3d8 necrotic damage.
Feed the Storm
No Hexes are removed.
Until the start of your next turn:
- Hexes cannot be removed unwillingly.
- Whenever a creature fails a saving throw while suffering one of your Hexes, you may immediately spread one of its Hexes to another creature within 30 feet.
Once you choose an option, all creatures suffering one or more of your Hexes must make a Wisdom saving throw.
On a failed save, they are Frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
Once per long rest.
Hex of Hollow Breath
The target cannot take reactions and loses concentration automatically if it fails a Constitution save.
Hex of Bleeding Fate
Whenever another Hex is applied to the creature, it takes 1d6 necrotic damage.
Hex of False Courage
The creature cannot benefit from advantage.
Hex of Cracked Armor
The creature's AC is reduced by 1.
Hex of Distant Suffering
Whenever the creature takes damage, another creature suffering one of your Hexes takes psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
all hexes no longer have charges.
Comments