My Homebrew

[In4Dimensions]

Otherworldly Patron: The Shadow
Your patron is a lord of the Underdark. I’m bad at fluff. Any ideas?

Expanded Spell List
The Shadow lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

1st: Fog Cloud, Silent Image
2nd: Phantasmal Force, Pass Without Trace
3rd: Phantom Steed, Bestow Curse Bestow Curse isn’t really the flavor I want; does anyone know of a better spell?
4th: Evard’s Black Tentacles, Phantasmal Killer
5th: Cloudkill, Creation

Scion of Shadows: Beginning at 1st level, you can see through all types of magical concealment and darkness, and you have darkvision out to 90 feet.

Vicious Shadows: Beginning at 6th level, whenever a creature ends its turn in an area of magical darkness created by you, it must make a Constitution saving throw against your Warlock spell save DC. On a fail, it takes 3d8 necrotic damage, or half as much damage on a successful save. This increases to 4d8 at 10th level, 5d8 at 13th level, 6d8 at 16th level, and 7d8 at 19th level.

Enervating Dark: Beginning at 10th level, creatures in areas of magical darkness created by you take a -2 penalty to their saving throws and attack rolls.

Expanded Darkness: Beginning at 14th level, you can cast Darkness with a 40 foot radius 1/day.

[In4Dimensions]

Seer: Mystic Subclass
Nomadic Mind, Third Eye, Aura Sight, and Precognition are Seer disciplines in addition to their other subclass disciplines.

Bonus Disciplines: At 1st level, you learn two additional disciplines of your choice. They must be chosen from among the Seer disciplines.

Visions from Beyond: At 1st level, you gain proficiency in Insight, Investigation, and Perception. If you already have proficiency with one or more of those skills, add twice your proficiency bonus to those skills.

Magic Sight: At 3rd level, you learn the spell Detect Magic, and you can cast it at will.

Proclamation of Fate: At 6th level, you can impose advantage or disadvantage on the next attack roll, ability check or saving throw (your choice) of a creature within 60 feet that can hear you. An unwilling creature can attempt a Charisma saving throw to reduce this effect to a -2 penalty. This is a bonus action.

See the Hidden: At 14th level, you gain truesight out to 15 feet.

Mastery of the Unknown: At 20th level, you can see through solid objects out to a range of 30 feet. You gain advantage on attack rolls against creatures you can see, and creatures within 30 feet can’t have cover against your attacks. You can’t be surprised, creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against you, and you gain advantage on saving throws. This replaces Psionic Body.

[JNAProductions]

This is really OP.

Scion of Shadows is basically a free invocation, but I guess that's not TOO bad.

Vicious Shadows turns Darkness into a ridiculously powerful AoE.

Dark Resilience is INSANELY OP-permanent advantage, just requiring darkness? Of any kind? No.

And Unending Darkness just makes the entire thing even more bonkers.

[In4Dimensions]

Reserved for future use

[In4Dimensions]

This is really OP.

Scion of Shadows is basically a free invocation, but I guess that's not TOO bad.

Vicious Shadows turns Darkness into a ridiculously powerful AoE.

Dark Resilience is INSANELY OP-permanent advantage, just requiring darkness? Of any kind? No.

And Unending Darkness just makes the entire thing even more bonkers.
Good to know. I’ll change it. About Vicious Shadows however: the damage triggers at the end of the opponent’s turn, giving them a chance to escape. Though I probably should scale down the damage...
Thanks for the feedback, though. I’m always trying to improve (and I’ve got a lot more improving to do!)

[JNAProductions]

So Vicious Shadows does 4d8 (18) points of damage, or half on a failed save. It applies to ANY area of magical darkness-yours or someone else's. And it applies every single turn they end there. That's okay, if you fight exclusively in wide-open areas where enemies can easily maneuver around the darkness... But in pretty much any other circumstance, it makes Darkness (in addition to a great control spell) a ridiculous damage dealer. And it scales really well too.

The rest of the subclass is still broken.

[In4Dimensions]

So Vicious Shadows does 4d8 (18) points of damage, or half on a failed save. It applies to ANY area of magical darkness-yours or someone else's. And it applies every single turn they end there. That's okay, if you fight exclusively in wide-open areas where enemies can easily maneuver around the darkness... But in pretty much any other circumstance, it makes Darkness (in addition to a great control spell) a ridiculous damage dealer. And it scales really well too.

The rest of the subclass is still broken.
Ok, I’ll tone down the power level.

[AvatarVecna]

You claim you're not sure on the fluff you want, but you're apparently sure enough on the fluff you want to know that Bestow Curse doesn't fit it. Could you clarify what fluff you are sure of, since you're apparently sure of at least some of it?

I've seen other homebrew do "free invocation" for their first lvl ability with nothing else, and that's not too bad. Honestly, you could go full force with it and just grant them the full invocation rather than giving it a slight downgrade.

Vicious Shadows is just inherently broken, to the point that I have no idea how you think this is the equal of other lvl 6 patron abilities.

Fiend gets a 1/rest +1d10 to an ability check or saving throw, which they can add after seeing the result but before suffering consequences. Fey can, 1/rest, spend a reaction to turn invisible and teleport 60 ft upon getting damaged. GOO can, 1/rest, spend a reaction to give an attacking enemy disadvantage on their attack (and, if the enemy's attack misses, the GOOlock gets advantage on their next attack against that creature before the end of the GOOlock's next turn). You get a passive buff to your Darkness spell (and any magical darkness near you) that causes 4d8 necrotic (Con for half) to anybody that ends their turn in magic darkness in your Line Of Sight. Let's ignore that this affects any magical darkness (such as naturally-occurring magical darkness, or that of a friendly spellcaster), and assume that it very specifically affects only a Darkness spell cast by you specifically. Now let's compare your amped-up Darkness spell to another 2nd lvl spell: Flaming Sphere. In fact, because Darkness is usually a 2nd lvl spell and has been amped-up, let's amp up Flaming Sphere by doubling the radius of its effects and doubling the damage.


Super Flaming Sphere is a lvl 2 spell that creates an ongoing spell effect that lasts for 1 minute (Concentration). The innermost 5ft radius of it blocks line of sight (even for those with standard darkvision) and deals damage to any creature that ends its turn within 15 ft of the centerpoint. It deals 4d6 fire damage to those creatures (Dex save for half). You can move it as a bonus action up to 30 ft.


Super Darkness is a lvl 2 spell that creates an ongoing spell effect that lasts for 10 minutes (Con). The innermost 15ft radius of it blocks line of sight (even for those with standard darkvision), and deals damage to any creature that ends its turn with 15ft of the centerpoint. It deals 4d8 necrotic damage to those creatures (Con save for half). You cannot move this spell effect.

Alrighty, so after having amped up both spells (one via your class feature and one via fairness), how do they compare? Super Darkness blocks Line Of Sight for an additional 10ft of radius (which is significant when most spells need line of sight to where you're casting them), deals 4 more damage on average, deals necrotic (a rarer resistance/immunity than fire), lets you avoid damage with a Con save (meaning evasion and similar abilities can't come into play), and has ten times the duration when both of these spells are AoE damage-over-time abilities.

Now, looking at the lvl 6 abilities, I can admit that they are certainly useful and powerful - Fey gives you essentially Invisibility + double-range Misty Step as a reaction to being damaged once per rest. That last part is important though: once per rest. Vicious Shadows, as currently written, is a passive benefit not just to your darkness spells, but to any magical darkness abilities your allies use, not to mention turning any magical darkness your enemies use against them. And even then, none of the core patron 6th lvl abilities improve as you level up.

If I was to make a suggestion for how to rebalance this ability so that it is more in line with the others without losing the interesting flavor of it, I would suggest rewording the ability as this:


Your connection with the shadowy forces of this world make the darkness you cast a much more dangerous place for those that oppose you. You may spend a bonus action to enhance an area of magical darkness that you can see with a sliver of your patrons power. Until 10 minutes have passed (or until the affected magical darkness ceases to exist, whichever comes first), any creature that ends its turn within the area of the magical darkness affected by this ability must make a Constitution save against your spell Save DC or take 4d8 necrotic damage (taking half damage on a successful save). Once you have used this ability, you, may not use it again until you have completed either a short or long rest.

That's it, essentially. Turning this from passive effect affecting every magical darkness in sight to a once-per-rest ability affecting any single magical darkness in sight is enough to bring it in line.

Advantage on all rolls while in magical darkness seems rather excessive, particularly when you've already got plenty of motivation to sling Darkness around willy-nilly. Making your magical darkness immune to dispelling-by-magical-light is already a pretty nice boost for this class, honestly, although you definitely need more than that. Taking a look at the other Patron lvl 10 abilities, it looks like they go for passive defensive benefits, so how about this:


Starting at level 10, you have resistance to necrotic damage, or immunity if you are within an area of darkness (magical or otherwise). Additionally, magical darkness effects created by your Pact Magic cannot be dispelled by magical light effects.

Unending Darkness needs to die in a fire. Even with the changes I've suggested, at-will 2nd lvl spells is NO. Wizard, the masters of magic, don't get this for another four levels, and you already have short-rest-recharging slots. After some consideration, I'm going to suggest the following ability:


You are a being of shadow, exuding darkness from your very being. You gain the Armor Of Shadows invocation; if you already possess this invocation, you may instead select another one. Additionally, while this invocation is active, the area within 30 ft of you is one lighting level lower (from bright light to dim light, from dim light to darkness, and from darkness to magical darkness), while the area within 5 ft of you is two lighting levels lower; these shadowy auras move as you do, are are a passive effect for as long as your Armor Of Shadows invocation is active. You can, as a reaction, reign in these wandering shadows; instead of the 30ft and 5ft auras of darker lighting, you gain a 15 ft aura of magical darkness that moves with you and lasts for a number of minutes equal to your Charisma modifier. Once you have used this ability, you may not use it again until you have completed a long rest.

[In4Dimensions]

You claim you're not sure on the fluff you want, but you're apparently sure enough on the fluff you want to know that Bestow Curse doesn't fit it. Could you clarify what fluff you are sure of, since you're apparently sure of at least some of it?

I've seen other homebrew do "free invocation" for their first lvl ability with nothing else, and that's not too bad. Honestly, you could go full force with it and just grant them the full invocation rather than giving it a slight downgrade.

Vicious Shadows is just inherently broken, to the point that I have no idea how you think this is the equal of other lvl 6 patron abilities.

Fiend gets a 1/rest +1d10 to an ability check or saving throw, which they can add after seeing the result but before suffering consequences. Fey can, 1/rest, spend a reaction to turn invisible and teleport 60 ft upon getting damaged. GOO can, 1/rest, spend a reaction to give an attacking enemy disadvantage on their attack (and, if the enemy's attack misses, the GOOlock gets advantage on their next attack against that creature before the end of the GOOlock's next turn). You get a passive buff to your Darkness spell (and any magical darkness near you) that causes 4d8 necrotic (Con for half) to anybody that ends their turn in magic darkness in your Line Of Sight. Let's ignore that this affects any magical darkness (such as naturally-occurring magical darkness, or that of a friendly spellcaster), and assume that it very specifically affects only a Darkness spell cast by you specifically. Now let's compare your amped-up Darkness spell to another 2nd lvl spell: Flaming Sphere. In fact, because Darkness is usually a 2nd lvl spell and has been amped-up, let's amp up Flaming Sphere by doubling the radius of its effects and doubling the damage.





Alrighty, so after having amped up both spells (one via your class feature and one via fairness), how do they compare? Super Darkness blocks Line Of Sight for an additional 10ft of radius (which is significant when most spells need line of sight to where you're casting them), deals 4 more damage on average, deals necrotic (a rarer resistance/immunity than fire), lets you avoid damage with a Con save (meaning evasion and similar abilities can't come into play), and has ten times the duration when both of these spells are AoE damage-over-time abilities.

Now, looking at the lvl 6 abilities, I can admit that they are certainly useful and powerful - Fey gives you essentially Invisibility + double-range Misty Step as a reaction to being damaged once per rest. That last part is important though: once per rest. Vicious Shadows, as currently written, is a passive benefit not just to your darkness spells, but to any magical darkness abilities your allies use, not to mention turning any magical darkness your enemies use against them. And even then, none of the core patron 6th lvl abilities improve as you level up.

If I was to make a suggestion for how to rebalance this ability so that it is more in line with the others without losing the interesting flavor of it, I would suggest rewording the ability as this:



That's it, essentially. Turning this from passive effect affecting every magical darkness in sight to a once-per-rest ability affecting any single magical darkness in sight is enough to bring it in line.

Advantage on all rolls while in magical darkness seems rather excessive, particularly when you've already got plenty of motivation to sling Darkness around willy-nilly. Making your magical darkness immune to dispelling-by-magical-light is already a pretty nice boost for this class, honestly, although you definitely need more than that. Taking a look at the other Patron lvl 10 abilities, it looks like they go for passive defensive benefits, so how about this:



Unending Darkness needs to die in a fire. Even with the changes I've suggested, at-will 2nd lvl spells is NO. Wizard, the masters of magic, don't get this for another four levels, and you already have short-rest-recharging slots. After some consideration, I'm going to suggest the following ability:
Yeah, I need to work on my homebrew skills. However, Warlocks do get at-will 2nd level spells at level 15 (there’s an invocation that grants at-will Invisibility). I updated the power level of almost all of the abilities.

[JNAProductions]

Vicious Shadows is still way too good.

Enervating Dark isn't necessarily broken (though it may be) but it's against 5E's design scheme.

[In4Dimensions]

Vicious Shadows is still way too good.

Enervating Dark isn't necessarily broken (though it may be) but it's against 5E's design scheme.
‘Kay then, I’ll change Vicious Shadows to a recharge ability, and come up with something different for Enervating Dark.

[AvatarVecna]

Vicious Shadows (still!) has three major balance problems when compared to the other 6th lvl abilities

1) It's a passive AoE damage effect on all magical darkness within your line of sight

2) The damage scales up, unlike every other 6th lvl patron ability

3) It has no use limit.

There is no world in which the ability as-written, even if it didn't scale, would be even remotely equal or even in the same ballpark as the abilities it's supposed to be equivalent to. I continue making the recommendation I made before, and will also point out that one of the reasons I suggested necrotic resistance/immunity before was because this ability isn't friendly in your version or mine, meaning if you hide in your own darkness spell you'll be taking this damage too.

Enervating Dark is broken in how it nerfs the opponent's offense - remember, they're almost definitely going to be taking disadvantage to attack rolls anyway, so combining that with a penalty makes things a lot worse on top of going against 5e's design philosophy - so I would probably recommend changing this to disadvantage on saving throws and ability checks while in magical darkness.

Expanded Darkness is fine. If I were to make any suggestion, I would probably write out what it actually does rather than basing it one a spell effect, that way it can't be countered/dispelled and clarifies that it's an additional Darkness effect rather than a 1/day enhancement to a Darkness spell you cast.