Order of the Shivered Psyche

Just as muscles must be ripped apart and broken before they can be rebuilt stronger, the mind must first be shattered before it can become hardened against the terrors beyond our world and understanding. The Order of the Shivered Psyche is a sibylline order of blood hunters who undergo “The Shattering”, a bizarre blood ritual where the mind is overwhelmed with aberrant imagery and knowledge not meant for human comprehension. This shattering of the psyche leaves these blood hunters quite unstable if not outright insane, but with training, they learn to use their hemocraft to regain control of their minds with newfound power and resiliency against aberrations and alien threats that the order is obsessed with overcoming. However, this regained control is not perfect, and even the most seasoned members of the order occasionally fall to brief bouts of madness when using their unearthly abilities. Yet blood hunters of the Shivered Psyche find this risk worth the strength they gain for their fight against the monstrous aliens from beyond their plane.

Rite of the Delusion

At 3rd level, you learn the Rite of the Delusion esoteric rite (detailed below).

Rite of the Delusion. Your rite damage is psychic damage. While the rite is active, you gain the following benefits:

• You can telepathically speak to any creature you can see within 60 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.
• You can sense the presence and location of any creature within 60 feet of you that has telepathy, regardless of interposing barriers, unless the creature is protected by a mind blank spell.
• Your weapon deals one additional hemocraft die of rite damage when you hit an aberration.

Hardened Psyche

Upon choosing this archetype at 3rd level, your mind is broken and then reconstructed stronger than before, giving you acute mental durability and otherworldly knowledge. When your intellect has already faced the aberrant horrors of the cosmos, there is little threat that an alien mind can now pose to you. You gain the following benefits:

• You are immune to disease.
• You have resistance to psychic damage.
• You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.
• Your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it.
• You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track aberrations, as well as on Intelligence ability checks to recall information about them.
• If you are afflicted with a long-term madness from the Long-Term Madness table in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, you can end the madness early when you finish a short or long rest.
• Your magical Blood Hunter and Order of the Shivered Psyche features are immune to the effects of areas of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, as your hemocraft is forever altered by otherworldly psionics.

Optional Rule: Sanity Proficiency

If your Dungeon Master uses the rules on Sanity scores in chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide and your blood hunter has a Sanity score, your blood hunter is proficient in Sanity saving throws at 3rd level.

In addition, your blood hunter’s Sanity score is not reduced when they suffer from long-term or indefinite madness, and they have advantage on Sanity checks.

 

Shattered Psyche

When you join this order at 3rd level, your survival through “The Shattering” has given you great esoteric knowledge and power, but at an equally great cost. Your mind is always teetering on the edge of madness, and when you suffer mental strain or make use of your dark abilities, you risk falling off that edge.

Whenever you take psychic damage greater than your blood hunter level (after applying resistance) in a single turn, you are charmed or frightened by a spell, or you lose a number of hit points equal to one roll of your hemocraft die from your Crimson Rite or Blood Maledict features, you must make a Wisdom saving throw against your hemocraft save DC. On a failed save, you roll on the Long-Term Madness table in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, gaining a madness effect for 1d10 ✕ 10 hours. You can end the madness early when you finish a short or long rest.

Optional Rule: Sanity Saving Throw

If your Dungeon Master uses the rules on Sanity scores in chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide and your blood hunter has a Sanity score, your blood hunter makes a Sanity saving throw instead.

Shared Psychosis

Starting at 7th level, you can temporarily merge your splintered mind with that of an enemy, corrupting both of your consciousnesses with otherworldly experience. As an action, you can force one creature you can see within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw against your hemocraft save DC. On a failed save, the creature rolls on the Short-Term Madness table in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Both you and the creature are afflicted with this short-term madness for 1d10 minutes. Alternatively, you can choose to lose a number of hit points equal to one roll of your hemocraft die to make the creature roll on the Long-Term Madness table instead, afflicting both you and the creature a long-term madness for 1d10 ✕ 10 hours. If the creature succeeds on its saving throw, it is immune to this feature for 24 hours.

Once you afflict yourself and a creature with short or long-term madness, you can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Optional Rule: Sanity Saving Throw

If your Dungeon Master uses the rules on Sanity scores in chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, the creature makes a Sanity saving throw instead.

Brand of Lunacy

Beginning at 11th level, you can inflict an ember of madness with your Brand of Castigation. When you brand a creature, you can choose to force the creature to roll on the Indefinite Madness table in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, afflicting it with an indefinite madness for as long as it is branded by you.

In addition, you can communicate telepathically with a branded creature and perceive through their senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence.

Blood Curse of the Demented Ego

Starting at 15th level, your blood curse can erode a creature’s intellect to the point of insanity. You gain the Blood Curse of the Demented Ego for your Blood Maledict feature. This does not count against your number of blood curses known.

Blood Curse of the Demented Ego

Prerequisite: 15th level, Order of the Shivered Psyche

As an action, you warp a creature’s mind with unknowable truths. A creature within 30 feet of you that you can see must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or roll on the Short-Term Madness table in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, gaining a short-term madness until the end of your next turn.

Amplify. This curse lasts for 1 minute. At the end of each of its turns, the cursed creature can make a Wisdom saving throw. On a success, this curse ends.

Optional Rule: Sanity Saving Throw

If your Dungeon Master uses the rules on Sanity scores in chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, the creature makes a Sanity saving throw instead.

Controlled Madness

Upon reaching 18th level, you gain a modicum of mastery over the insanity of your own shivered mind. Whenever a creature (including you) rolls on the Short-Term Madness, Long-Term Madness, or Indefinite Madness tables in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide due to one of your Order of the Shivered Psyche features, you can make the creature roll twice and you choose which number to use.

Alien Geometry

At 18th level, you recognize the arbitrary makeup of planar space, and learn to navigate the space between space, wrapping and warping spatial fabric to transport yourself in ways the normal mind can’t understand. As a bonus action, you can teleport up to 60 feet in any direction, including through walls and to areas you can’t see. If you are inside an object after teleporting, you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space that you can occupy and take force damage equal to twice the number of feet you moved. After you teleport in this way, for 1 minute you gain the ability to move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free, as if gravity has been altered for you.

When you teleport in this way, your appearance seems to fracture and multiply, as if the rest of the world is viewing your body through a kaleidoscope, as you step between dimensions.

After you take this bonus action, you must make a Wisdom saving throw for your Shattered Psyche feature, as traveling through alien dimensions threatens to unravel your mind again.