New Warlock Patron: The Corruption in the Flame

For Under the Seas of Vodari, it might seem a little strange to offer a fiery warlock patron. In Vodari, the thermal vents on the seafloor are sources of magical transformation – some beneficial, some malevolent – and that sparked this idea. Maybe the dwarves and others have encountered something that both is and is not the destroyer-god Volkan when they work their deep-sea forges. I’m going to suggest a bunch of canon for Volkan that isn’t remotelyofficial until Michelle Houser and Shawn Ellsworth, our keepers of esoteric lore, have vetted it.

Corruption in the Flame

Whether above or below the waves, you have looked into the volcanic fires that flow from the heart of Vodari. What you saw there, the voice that spoke to you, changed you forever. The god Volkan tried to burn out all of the fear and malice that he saw within himself; he wished to be a Destroyer God no more. But the ashes of his divine power that he cast out were still a divinity unto themselves, and took on a partial sapience that could still grant power to mortals.

Expanded Spell List

1st burning hands, inflict wounds
2nd continual flame, flaming sphere
3rd fireball, protection from energy
4th black tentacles, wall of fire
5th contagion, dispel evil and good

The Power Within
1st-level Corruption in the Flame feature

You can embody one side of your patron’s dual nature for a time. As a bonus action, you can choose one of the following, which lasts for 10 minutes. Only one can be active at a time, but you can end one and immediately choose the other when you cast a spell using a Pact Magic slot.

Exaltation in Flame. You gain resistance to fire damage and advantage on saving throws against disease. Once per turn when you deal damage to a creature with a cantrip or hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can deal fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier to a creature within 5 feet of your target. You can deal fire damage with your eldritch blast instead of force.

Seed of Corruption. You gain resistance to necrotic damage. When you deal damage to a creature with a cantrip or hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can use your reaction at the start of its next turn to deal 2d6 necrotic damage to it. You can deal necrotic damage with your eldritch blast instead of force.

Flame in the Deep

1st-level Corruption in the Flame feature

Spells that you cast that deal fire damage ignore resistance to fire damage from the target being underwater.

Power Released

6th-level Corruption in the Flame feature

When Exaltation in Flame ends, you regain 1d8 + your Charisma bonus (minimum 0) hit points. You can regain hit points this way a number of times equal to your number of Pact Magic slots, and regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

When Seed of Corruption ends, you vomit out bile, and you can roll a new saving throw against one curse with a duration of less than 24 hours, disease, or effect that causes the poisoned condition. On a success, that effect ends.

Explosive Wrath

10th-level Corruption in the Flame feature

Your Exaltation in the Flame feature now deals fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier to creatures of your choice within 5 feet of your initial target. Your Seed of Corruption feature now deals 4d6 necrotic damage when you use your reaction.

Reforged in Flame

14th-level Corruption in the Flame feature

You can transform a newly-dead creature into a new form, so that it may serve you. Choose a creature that is not a construct, elemental, or undead, that has died within the last minute, and whose remains you can see.

· If its CR or level is 5 or lower, you can choose for it to become a gargoyle, hell hound, or nightmare.

· If its CR or level is 10 or lower, you can choose for it to become a black pudding.

· If its CR is 11 or greater, you can choose for it to become a fire elemental or salamander.

The creature has all of the normal game statistics for a creature of its type, except that it can’t regain hit points through any means. It has no knowledge of its previous life or any ability to communicate while transformed. It obeys your mental commands and acts on its own turn. It dies when it is reduced to 0 hit points or after 8 hours. You can use this feature once, and can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Conclusion

Fundamentally, my thinking about subclasses (warlock subclasses most of all) is that you need to be constructing a playstyle. What that means to me is that the subclass introduces a wrinkle in the player’s decision-making process, causing that decision-making to differ from characters of other subclasses. Because Attack and Cast a Spell are going to be your main action in 90+% of combat rounds, many classes make something out of bonus actions, one way or another; features that trigger off of attacking or casting a spell are also common. As you see, I’ve played with both of those things here, in making a stance-based warlock.

My one problem with stance-based subclasses? Especially when someone else writes them, I kinda want to write just one more option, in about the same vein as writing new Battle Master Maneuvers or Totem Warrior totems.

There is also a little bit of this that is me thinking about thematically viable replacements for the now-quite-dated Fiend patron, and working myself up to taking another run at a replacement Archfey patron.