Reaper warlock patron

[Rfkannen]

Don't fear the reaper

Magic is coming back, and many people are happy about it. Some of the people most happy about this are the necromancers, they bring back their loved ones and summon zombie hordes and generally are quite happy about the new magic, but there's one man who is not very happy about them. This man would be the man known as mr death, the grim reaper. He does know however that humans really REALLY like magic power, and as such sometimes when someone dies who he thinks would be useful he will make a deal, you go kill some necromancers and undead for me and ill let you come back to life and as a bonus you will get some magic power to do the job, the name of these people? Reapers.

Bonus spells

• 1st - sleep, false life
• 2nd- spiritual weapon
• 3rd- spirit guardians, speak with dead
• 4th- death ward, phantasmal killer
• 5th- hollow, reincarnate.

Favored by death starting at 1st level as long as you hold deaths favor you have trouble dyeing., you no longer age unless aged magically and have advantage on death saving throws. In addition you can see a person's relation to death. By spending an action and opening the eyes of death you see if a person has ever died and if they have ever killed.

Death's shroud Starting at level 6. Once per short rest you can cloud yourself from people's view by creating a cloak shadow death and the ethereal plane. While you are wearing this cloak you make no noise unless you wish to, and can only be seen by those who can see the invisible or those in the ethereal plane, as well as those at or below 0 hit points. The cloak dissipates if you attack or someone attack you.

Kill the dead. Starting at level 10 you can force the dead to stay dead. As an action you can destroy weaker undead. As an action you can point at a singular singular undead creature of cr 2 or lower and make them take a dc 10 charisma saving throw, if they fail they dye and can not be brought back to life or undeath for 1d12 years.

Master of death. starting at level 14 you have become a master of death. you can as an action travel to any afterlife or back to the last place you were on the mortal plane. In addition you can bring one person back to life no questions asked, the reaper does not care if you bring someone back to life in this manner, if you do so you have to wait 1d12 weeks until you can do it again. You can bring yourself back with this. Should you die and you do not have this then the reaper decides what to do with your soul.


ps. So yeah, I am making a campaign set in the modern world as magic is coming back and this is the first class path I made for it. What do you think of it?

pss. this is inspired by the comic death vigil (the picturer) and the tvshow reaper.

[Ralanr]

1. Advantage on death saving throws at level 1 is flavorful, but I feel might be too powerful.
2. That level 14 ability should probably have a limit. The reaper might get annoyed at the abuse since he/she might not want more people coming back from the dead.

But outside of that? I like it. I love the flavor and I enjoy the concept of putting the classes in modern day times. Making new subclasses for the setting sounds very interesting and fun.

[Rfkannen]

1. Advantage on death saving throws at level 1 is flavorful, but I feel might be too powerful.
2. That level 14 ability should probably have a limit. The reaper might get annoyed at the abuse since he/she might not want more people coming back from the dead.

But outside of that? I like it. I love the flavor and I enjoy the concept of putting the classes in modern day times. Making new subclasses for the setting sounds very interesting and fun.

yeah I suppose you are right on the death saving throw thing. any idea what to replace it with?

ah the level 14 ability, that was one that I had trouble with. As far as I can tell all of the level 14 abilities of the warlock paths are completely awesome and are meant to be awesome, and I had trouble figureing out how to match them. I gave them the current one because while it looks awesome at around this level clerics starting getting it as a spell they can cast every day, so I didn't feel it was that powerful in comparison. But it is still kind of weird for the reaper, a being very much against bringing the dead back to life, is giveing you the power to bring the dead back to life. But I felt that one every 1d12 weeks wasnt that bad, but in hindsight while it is pretty cool, it is kind of contradictory, would piss off your patron, and doesnt realy make much sense, also it is actualy kind of week. Not sure what else to do.

well thank you for the comment. It made me realise that I had one way to powerful and one way to weak ability!

Glad you liked it! Having trouble coming up with sub classes for the modern time. If it was sci fi it would be easier, include a laser gun and cyborg parts, but with modern times a lot of it would be pretty similar. I liked this one because it would fit in a standered fantasy game just as well as a modern one! I have a couple ideas in my head so far, what if a wizard used a tablet device or smart phone? What if a bard was a travelling busker? what if the druid was a hippe? but a lot of those seem a lot more like character concepts than actual class paths, I am thinking of ways to do more than just modern and also include some unique setting elements, but I do want to include some wholly modern ideas. planneing to put another one of the modern ones up here soon though!

I had one that I was pretty sure about, it was called the pigeon man, was a warlock archetype who could turn into and talk with pigeons, they acted as a spy network, but I decided I didn't want to do two warlock ones in a row, and am trying to figure out what class it might suit. Tried druid but it didnt realy work because they can already shapeshift.

[Fizban]

Needs another 2nd level spell, not sure False Life is that great either when Warlocks have access to both the superior Armor of Agathys and also lv1 False Life at-will via an invocation slot.

I disagree with Ralnar on both counts: advantage on death saves has effectively no power, three successful death saves takes a minimum of three turns and still leaves you unconscious. It's only useful at level 1, as the game never respects the fragility it places on level 1 characters and the randomness of the system around them so you might have to rely on it. As for resurrection: 1d12 weeks is a vast range of randomized time that functionally limits it to once per adventure, and unlike most patrons which are indistinct and thus cannot feasibly revoke your powers, I think the description makes it clear that Death is intended to be a specific patron you can't mess with for this pact.

That said, the whole thing needs some cleanup and editing. It should specify what I have asssumed above, that Death is a singular patron and can revoke your powers if you "lose favor," as well as what acts will generally cause you to do so.

For the abilities: 1st level is quite cool, a very unique instant information grab that can mean everything or nothing, way more interesting than other pacts but less impressive mechanically, better death saves suggest playing more freely at low levels. 6th refunds some of that power with invisbility+silent movement, but needs clarification on if it's really intended to have unlimited duration (also what happens if you go to sleep or short rest?). 10th is lame, I saw the same CR2 death mechanic elsewhere but you shouldn't be fighting those at that point so it's just for showing off to peasants, but just getting necrotic resistance or something would also be pretty lame. 14th I already said I'm fine with: Dark Delirium and Create Thrall are pretty weak if you ask me but Hurl Through Hell is pretty strong. A free resurrection here and there just lets the DM avoid having to justify a sudden new PC, or NPCs footing the bill every time you get knocked over.

[Ralanr]

Smart phone and tablet casting is something I've wanted to use in urban fantasy stories. Though I don't think a subclass is needed for that to work. You could make them a replacement for spell books.

Course then you have hipster spellcasters. XD

[Ninja_Prawn]

That said, the whole thing needs some cleanup and editing.

And how. I almost burst out laughing in the office when I read "you have trouble dyeing"... No indigo dress for you, missy!

I saw the same CR2 death mechanic elsewhere but you shouldn't be fighting those at that point

It's the cleric's Destroy Undead ability, which goes up to CR 2 at level 11.

Overall, I like the class. The suggestions above are good.

[Prince Zahn]

I want to first say that this is a really awesome idea - I love the idea of the warlock working for death
As mentioned before - advantage on death saving throws is awesome, though anything anything that helps you get an edge on saving throws is pretty strong. the other half of that ability (seeing all the killers and killed) is a neat little ribbon, Mui dolce.

@Ninja_Prawn and @OP: except the cleric's Turn/destroy undead is an AoE, whilst Kill the Dead effects a single CR 2 undead, which by 10th level can be killed in groups within the first round. Perhaps making the Level 10 KtD ability an AoE might make it relevant at this level too.

I did notice though that level 10 Warlock abilities are more inclined to have a defensive nature. Perhaps an ability instead that won't allow lesser undead harm you unless threatened first or commanded to attack you specifically, while stronger undead receive a save. Or at least impose on them all a passive disadvantage, maybe with a save if you feel it is necessary.
Nevertheless, I imagine the Reaper rushing past this legion of rampaging undead to reach the necromancer behind it all (with all the necrotic energy emanating from him why would this be a shocker?)
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Your bard can play jazz music and/or busk in the street, or something, if it interests him. I'm not sure you need to overthink it.

The idea of a pigeon man is also very awesome, reminds of some cartoons I used to watch. Perhaps you can make a swarm of pigeons that function like a swarm of ravens as an alternate of the ranger's Animal Companion, or it might make a killer Sorcerous origin :D
If these aren't your style, consider making Pigeon man a background :D how does that sound?

Course then you have hipster spellcasters. XD

They have those in regular D&D, too. They're called Sorcerers.

That said, the whole thing needs some cleanup and editing. It should specify what I have asssumed above, that Death is a singular patron and can revoke your powers if you "lose favor," as well as what acts will generally cause you to do so.

I don't know how it is at everybody else's table, but I assume that is a given with every Warlock I bring to the table, nothing exclusive with death about it. I play a warlock with the assumption that not playing by my patron's rules could either invoke the wrath of the Otherworldly Patron, or outright retract the pact you made with him/her/it.

[faustin]

I would change Master of Death both name and effect: the first because of being offensive, since Death is your master, not the other way around;
as for the second... yeah, is against the Grim Reaper´s policy to give such leeway for resurrection, since he feels death is something it should be accepted rather than cheated (which is the main reason necromancers piss him to no end).
This said, lending the high-level reaper a bunch of souls to fight for him for a single scene would be much more acceptable.

[Fizban]

I don't know how it is at everybody else's table, but I assume that is a given with every Warlock I bring to the table, nothing exclusive with death about it. I play a warlock with the assumption that not playing by my patron's rules could either invoke the wrath of the Otherworldly Patron, or outright retract the pact you made with him/her/it.

Nothing wrong there of course, you can only do cool Warlock/patron shenanigans if you define the patron and shenanigans make for a more interesting game than "yay I cast the same spells every fight." RAW the only mention of how you gotta deal with your patron is "work with your DM" in the fluff section, mechanically there's no requirements or penalties (unlike the Paladin's very specific oaths). Previous editions mentioned people getting warlock powers from pacts their ancestors made, giving a perfectly in-world justification for why they might have power without being beholden to anyone so people could make warlocks without that issue if they wanted. If the classes are properly balanced then any extra restrictions should come with benefits, or if a Warlock has to deal with a patron just to take the class then I'd expect a Wizard to have to deal with their own master and a Fighter to deal with a dojo (I expect those are much less common).

Of course there have always been optional "training" rules for putting a price on leveling, but I ignore those as well because. . . why? Anyway, Warlock patrons in 5e are nebulous by RAW and only have consequences if the player and DM agree, but this Death is written assuming some level of consequences which means it needs to be spelled out.

Re: Death shouldn't want people rezzed; I actually quite like this take. Death raging against any raising any time makes no sense, there's tons of people dying constantly. What matters is who and why: Death should be eager to return his own servants, just as any god will allow their people to be raised and continue their work. If Death has specifically empowered a Warlock to seek and destroy his most hated targets, then naturally keeping that person on his side and doing that job will easily outweigh the cost of a couple souls. Now if the Warlock wanted to raise one of Death's foes, that's where it gets dicey and you've gotta leverage that contract or convince him you're playing the long con.

[Prince Zahn]

I agree with everything Fizban just said.

As mentioned above, I do that sort of thing anyway, but for comparison's sake, why should a contract with death necessarily have stricter, harsher and more legally binding restrictions than a deal with the archdevil, or a very moodywhimsical seelie overmistress, for that matter?


After 14 levels of devoted service to his cause, I reckon it's also fair to guess that death might trust you enough to take/rescue the few souls you care most about from the afterlife, though my fluff logic points towards rebirth in a literal sense, instead of straight up rezzing, your alternative, of course, being reincarnation.

[LibraryOgre]

...I was kinda disappointed that this wasn't something else.