Lichtouched – A New Sorcerous Origin
At the beginning of the year I unveiled my plan to make Enora my first fully published world.
With that world comes new monsters, races, subclasses, and more. I’m now adding a sorcerous origin to the undead world – lichtouched.
Note that what is below is considered playtest material. Please let me know what you think!
Lichtouched
Your innate magic comes from some place of dark energy. Your parents may have been cursed by a powerful undead spellcaster. You could have visited a plane of negative energy. Perhaps you were even once an undead creature yourself. The reason you attuned to necromantic magic may never be clear, but what is obvious is that you can wield this power as easily as any lich.
Withering Grasp
When you choose this origin at 1st level, you gain the chill touch cantrip if you don’t already know it. In addition, when you cast and deal damage with chill touch, add your Charisma modifier to the damage roll of the spell.
Flesh of the Dead
Starting at 1st level, your flesh takes on a dull gray or stark white appearance. You are resistant to necrotic damage and have advantage on saving throws against effects that reduce your hit point maximum.
Consume Soul
Starting at 6th level, when a creature you can see dies, you can use your reaction to consume its soul. You regain 2 sorcery points and the creature’s soul is destroyed as a result. You can use this feature twice. You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Blood of the Dead
Starting at 14th level, you are immune to disease and poison. In addition, whenever you deal necrotic damage to a creature with a spell you cast, that creature cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
Undead Being
Beginning at 18th level, you can channel necrotic energy to become ghostly. As an action, you spend 5 sorcery points to draw on this power. For 1 minute or until you lose concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you gain a fly speed equal to your walking speed and you can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object. While in this form, you are resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons as well as acid, fire, lightning, and thunder damage.
If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!
May 18, 2017 @ 8:49 am
I really like this. A couple minor things stand out.
“Horrifying Touch” suggests some sort of fear mechanic. I’d change the name to “Withering Grasp” or something similar.
Wording tweak on Consume Sou’s first sentence: “Starting at 6th level, when a creature you can see dies, you can use your reaction to consume its soul.”
I tripped a little reading it initially.
I like both the effects going on in Blood of the Dead, but the second effect relating to it is screaming for more spells that deal necrotic damage (there aren’t many in the PHB), or a way to change a spell’s damage to necrotic.
This Origin would enjoy some new necrotic spells, or perhaps a new Metamagic that lets you add necrotic damage to a spell, or change the damage type.
Overall, this is great stuff!
May 18, 2017 @ 9:03 am
This is great feedback!!!!! Thank you so much, Dan. I guess I should design some more necrotic spells for this setting….
May 18, 2017 @ 11:33 am
Consume soul should read: you REGAIN and EXPENDED uses….I would also be tempted to add a feature somewhere that allows the expenditure of sorcery points to change the damage type of a spell to necrotic, or alternatively adds it. But other than those two small things, this looks excellent.
May 18, 2017 @ 11:41 am
Thanks! Fixed those typos. Nice catch. I am hearing the cry for more necrotic damage. Not a bad idea!
May 18, 2017 @ 8:34 pm
I really like almost all of this, but though Consume Soul looks like a good mechanic, it has a couple of issues to me.
Firstly, it might be worth giving the victim a Wis save to avoid having their soul destroyed, otherwise it could be abused if against targets that return from the dead either “naturally” or through allies resurrecting them. Making this change would make it less effective, so possibly increase the number of charges to the user’s Cha modifier (minimum 1)?
Secondly, 2 sorcery points per soul seems off; maybe make it restore sorcery points equal to a quarter of the target’s hit dice (rounded down, minimum 1), representing more potent souls having more “juice”. Even then, a sorcerer could theoretically keep a cage full of mice & just snap one of their necks whenever they needed a boost, so changing it from “creature” to “sentient creature” might work better.
A Magic Feat – World Builder Blog
February 15, 2018 @ 8:01 am
[…] need more spells that deal necrotic damage. When I showed off my lichtouched sorercous origin, this fact was pointed out to me by several people. The subclass has some features that rely on the […]