Dark Sun Wizard School - Defiler

Defilers tap into the life of the land and consume as much as they can with abandon, leaving behind sterile, ashen land whenever they prepare spells. Further, as their power grows, a defiler’s aura becomes tainted by their thirst for power and endless hunger. Even worse, defiling is addictive, and few wizards who defile can refrain from the gluttonous practice. Defilers disdain subtlety in most cases, preferring intimidation and brandishing their power as a weapon. Ruling through fear, defilers are heavy handed tyrants where they can rule. Most are hermits in the waste who avoid conflict while they hone their power and study the arcane. They are all pariahs, their very souls branded by their cursed magic.

Note: Defilers are meant to be antagonists in Dark Sun, more powerful for their wicked ways. Defilers are balanced to be more powerful than a typical wizard of the same level, and are not recommended for player characters.

Defiler's Way

At 2nd level, when you gain this school, you devour all energy in the land around you. However, there is a price for this power.

Defiled Aura

At 2 level, your aura gains a subtle stain of defiling, marking you as unclean. You suffer disadvantage on any ability check to hide that you are a defiler. At this point, it is more difficult to convince others to disregard the unease they feel in your presence.

If your alignment is Good, it becomes Neutral.

Devour Energy

At 2 level, when a defiler prepares spells, they devour all the energy in the land around them, swelling with its power. Your Arcane Recovery has a maximum number of spell levels equal to your wizard level instead of half your wizard level, which you refresh after a long rest, when you prepare spells for the day. You can use Arcane Recovery to regain spell slots up to 6 level.

When you prepare spells, you leave a radius of dead earth, destroy a circle of land centered on a point in a square they occupy as they prepare spells. The radius of the circle is 5 feet times the highest-level spell they prepare, plus an additional 5 feet. Thus, preparing 1 level spells defiles the land in a 10-foot radius, while preparing a 9 level spell defiles the land in a 50-foot radius. Defiled land is barren, the topsoil and all plant life are reduced to ash, blowing away in the wind.

Animals are not damaged, but any living creature, other than a plant, in the defiling radius is afflicted with great pain, and suffers disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls until they leave the affected area. Plant creatures who remain in the area suffer 1d10 Necrotic damage per 5 feet in the defiling radius, which cannot be reduced by resistance or immunity. A plant creature reduced to 0 hit points this way dies and is reduced to ash.

Your need to draw energy from the land affects how your class features are refreshed, depending on the terrain:

Terrain Type	Examples	Effects
Dead	Obsidian Planes Defiled Land Volcanic Slopes	Wizards cannot prepare spells, refresh Arcane Recovery spell levels, or use other class features, except for ones related to gathering energy.
Desolate	Salt Flats Silt Sea	Wizards do not refresh their Arcane Recovery spell levels, and loses one spell slot per spell level. Defilers defile an additional 10-foot radius of land.
Barren	Scrub Lands Boulder Fields Stony Barrens	Wizards refresh half the normal number of Arcane Recovery spell levels, and they lose a spell slot from their two highest spell levels. Defilers defile an additional 5-foot radius of land.
Infertile	City-State Rocky Badlands Scrublands Stony Barrens	Normal Arcane Recovery and spell preparation.
Fertile	Verdant Plains Savannahs Mud Flats Swamps Irrigated Fields	Wizards refresh an additional 3 levels of Arcane Recovery above their normal maximum.
Abundant	Gardens Forests Jungles Oceans	Wizards refresh an additional 5 levels of Arcane Recovery above their normal maximum.

Defiler's Power

At 6th level, you begin to come into your power, gaining the ability to improve your spells with stolen energy. However, your spiritual decay spread.

Defiled Spirit

At 6th level, you suffer Disadvantage on Persuasion checks with living creatures, who can sense something unclean about you. You also suffer Disadvantage on Deception checks to convince others that you are harmless or non-threatening.

Defiling Metamatic

At 6 levels, choose a Metamagic option from the Sorcerer class. You follow all the listed rules for Metamagic, and you spend spell levels from your Arcane Recovery class feature as if they were Sorcery Points to apply Metamagic options to your spells. You gain a second Metamagic option at 10th level and a third Metamagic option at 14th level.

Life Reaver

Your defiler powers grow, and you can rip life energy from plant creatures when you cast spells.

Defiled Spells

At 10th level, when you cast a spell, you may choose a plant creature within 30 feet of you. If you do, you deal 1d10 Necrotic damage to that creature, which ignores resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage. You add one spell level to your Arcane Recovery feature, even if you are at your normal maximum. Any spell levels above your normal maximum are lost when you complete your next long rest.

Defiling Metamagic Option

At 10th level, a defiler gains their second Metamagic option.

Twisted Soul

At 10th level, your defiling has twisted your soul on a fundamental level. You are affected by spells and effects as if you were an aberration and a fiend. Spells that detect aberrations or fiends, or Detect Magic, reveal that you are a defiler.

If your alignment is not Evil, it becomes Evil.

Master Defiler

At 14th level, you unlock the secret that defilers consider key to mastering their craft - using obsidian to drain life energy from animal life.

Defiling Metamagic Option

You gain your third Metmagic option.

Obsidian Preparation

At 14th level, if you prepare your spells during a long rest with an obsidian focus with a gp (cp) cost equal to 1,000 * the highest level spell you can cast, you may draw on the energy of any animate living creature in addition to plants and the earth. However, since animate creatures can leave the area of your defiling, they must be restrained, incapacitated, or willing. For every 5 non-plant living creatures you draw energy from, you consider the terrain one step more fertile, to a maximum of abundant. This does not apply to Dead terrain (but see below).

If you draw energy from 5 living creatures per level of the highest spell you can prepare, you may prepare spells in Dead terrain normally. If you are not on Dead terrain, you may choose to not affect the terrain.

Creatures used for spell energy reduce their maximum hit points by 40, even if a feature, spell, or other effect would prevent their maximum hit points from being reduced. The creature only recovers their lost hit points after completing 7 long rests or receiving a Greater Restoration. Creatures reduced to 0 hit points this way are slain and reduced to ash.

Obsidian Spells

At 14th level, if you add an obsidian sphere with a cp (gp) cost equal to 1,000 * the level of the spell you are casting, you may use your Defiled Spells feature on any living creature.

Unclean Thing

At 14th level, your defiled nature becomes a palpable presence that is impossible to hide. Your Persuasion checks on living creatures automatically fail, as do your Deception checks to convince living creatures that you are not a defiler or that you are harmless or non-threatening. However, you gain advantage on Intimidation checks against living creatures.