Continuing beyond death… the dream of many an evil sorcerer or warlock. A dream very rarely realized, save for the most cunning and powerful of creatures. But such monsters are ill-content to simply slumber away, silent. Most desire power, influence, and more from the living world, and are ever in need of loyal servants.

 

Read on below for more on the Embalmed!

-Warlock- Embalmed Patron v1

You can also find the PDF version here.

 

A warlock who serves one of the Embalmed is a terrifying opponent indeed. Their power is that of death and decay, and their master’s domain is one of scorching sands and haunted ruins. Many wear rags imbued with their master’s ancient curses, and can call upon incantations older than fear itself.

 

FEATURES:

• Wrap yourself up in your Patron’s power, animating bandages to harry your opponents!
• Call upon the howling scourge of the wastes, a terrible sandstorm!
• Finally, unleash the most powerful of tools in your Patron’s arsenal – a blasphemous curse of horrifying potency!

 

DESIGN NOTES:

• So I recently watched The Mummy, right? (The original, that is.) And, well, here we are. In any case, the central idea here is battlefield utility. While I considered making this a minion-focused subclass that raised up mummified animals/corpses, I ended up liking the linen wraps better as a control tool.
• While the wraps are obviously the headliner feature here, I wanted to expand to make this a little more than just a straight up whip class. In fact, a lot of my different iterations on design ended up in Eldritch Invocation options – from the mummified minion master turning into Afterlife Companion, to the whip-heavy martial take becoming Ancient General’s Wraps, I got to keep more of my original ideas that usual here.
• That being said, it leaves me worrying that the base class is too sparse. I don’t want it to feel like you have to take an Eldritch Invocation just to feel “cool,” but at the same time it feels balanced mechanically and numerically. I also like Blasphemous Word quite a lot, so hopefully that can carry it.
• All in all, I’m pleased. I think it’s a mechanically solid subclass with interesting Eldritch Invocation options for support. And hey, the base subclass being a little less than fascinating isn’t too bad. As long as it works, isn’t overpowered, and can be fun, I don’t particularly mind.

 

Thanks for reading!