Warlock Pact: The Rider (hint: the warlock is the thing being ridden)

I wanted to build a warlock pact whose powers were more rooted in role playing. Each ability after the first level has a cost that the warlock pays during downtime. The GM should have an idea of the entity's goals for the warlock, and a plan for what it will do with any opportunities it gains to use the warlock to further those goals during that downtime. A warlock that gives in and gets corrupted by it's entity too much may see some of the benefits of being evil, as it's entity will take care of it's host, but if it falls to far the player's time with the character becomes limited. The pact offers a great deal of power to the warlock in the moment, but that is checked by how far they are willing to fall to corruption, and eventually limit their lifespan, and how much of the party's trust they will lose. 

This pact is intended for those players who want to roleplay an actual hero who is determined to destroy the entity riding him, rather than a player who plans to fall to corruption at the first opportunity. I feel that any imaginative GM out there could sufficiently curb the power offered by this class to be a reasonable level, but if you are a GM that tends to let players get away with things without consequence, this subclass may be very, very wrong for your group, as it depends on the GM providing a check to it's power. 

It's also best used in a game where the GM is okay with the campaign going drastically awry due to an imaginative player with the power to back up their imagination. Expect it, because that's kind of what this subclass is made for. 

And if you wonder where my ideas came for it, it is almost entirely inspired by the Sanderis magic in the 7ths Sea 2nd Edition RPG. And that system might give you a bunch of more ideas on how to handle a class like this. 

Anyway, I hope someone out there likes what they see in it, and enjoys having it in a game. If you do, please share your stories with me!

Warlock Pact: The Rider

Your patron is a being who exists solely to corrupt mortal heroes. They are a creature of bargains. Your bargain with them takes the form of a contest: Can they corrupt your soul before you learn their true name? If you learn their true name you can destroy them utterly… and take on a new Rider to test yourself against. After the bargain is struck they become a constant companion in your mind, “riding” you. The ridden warlock can ask their Rider favors in exchange for giving some control up to it temporarily. This power makes the ridden extraordinarily powerful, even for a warlock, but at a dangerous cost. 

***Note: anything the Rider does while it is in control can affect the warlock’s alignment, since they agreed to let the entity take control.

Expanded Spell List

The Rider 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. This warning applies to both Minor Favor and Favor.

Expanded Spells

Spell Level Spells
1st Ceremony, Command
2nd Augury, Zone of Truth
3rd Bestow Curse, Glyph of Warding
4th Divination, Locate Creature
5th Commune, Geas

1st-The Exact Truth

The Warlock with a Rider pact has learned to speak in a precise, direct, and clearly stated manner that allows no misinterpretation. They learned this skill from the entity riding them. Whenever the player’s exact wording matters (whether for a spell or a social interaction), the player may describe what they want to the GM rather than provide an exact wording. All abilities that detect lies or truth detect the player’s words as truth. The player may not use this ability when a bluff check would be called for. 

6th-Minor Favor***

Starting at 6th level, the warlock may cast a spell that is on the warlock’s spell list, and of a level they could cast, but is not currently prepared. In exchange, during the next downtime, their Rider may cast suggestion on them, with no save available. It is up to the GM, based on what exactly the Rider will be asking, how many times the Rider is willing to let this ability be used. It will only queue up as many suggestions as it thinks you can accomplish during that next downtime. This may be used even if all of the Warlock’s Spell Slots have been used.

10th-Favor***

Starting at 10th level, the warlock may cast any spell that is on any spell list, as long as it is of a level they could cast warlock spells at. In exchange, during the next downtime, their Rider may cast Dominate on them, with no save available, lasting for 10 minutes. Additional uses of this ability increase that time. It is up to the GM, based on what exactly the Rider will be asking, how many times the Rider is willing to let this ability be used. It will only queue up as much dominated time as it thinks it can use during that next downtime. This may be used even if all of the Warlock’s Spell Slots have been used.

14th-Major Favor

Starting at 14th level, the warlock may cast Wish. The price for this is to move one step closer to chaotic or evil on the alignment track. Nothing can prevent this alignment shift. To call upon the warlock’s Rider for this kind of power is ALWAYS corrupting. If the warlock reaches Chaotic Evil on the alignment track, the Rider claims their soul, and takes their body as its own permanently, becoming an NPC. If the warlock uses this power Seven Times without reaching Chaotic Evil, they learn the True Name of their Rider, destroy it utterly, and take on a new Rider. The temptation to corrupt the warlock is too great for any Rider to resist, so there will always be another one willing to bargain with the warlock. Note: the warlock does not lose any class features when this occurs, it continues on with all the abilities it has gained, as it has become experienced in dealing with a rider. 

Headcannon: Placing Eberron in My Universe

Headcannon: Placing Eberron In My Universe

Eberron has been my favorite setting for a long, long time, ever since I fell in love with Xendrik playing Dungeons and Dragons Online many years ago.  The more I looked into the lore of the place, the more I liked how it was put together.  Lately, though, I’ve been playing the more science fiction Starfinder. I’ve wanted to place Eberron somewhere in the universe I am playing in for the players to stumble across.

For the longest time, I wasn’t sure how to go about it, but after Keith Baker’s blog post on reaching the stars from Eberron, the ideas started forming. My ideas approach it from the outside-in rather than the inside-out.  Seeing as I have not-a-single-thing to do with Wizards, all of this is just my headcanon for how Eberron fits in a larger universe.  With that said, I am going to try to present it all without contradicting the established lore.

So, the first question:

Where is Eberron?

It’s already established that Eberron is a material plane of just that one solar system, with one planet, one sun, and 12 moons. If I am going to both keep that intact and also add it to another universe that has its own already established material plane with tons of planets and solar systems, then they have to be separated somehow. My solution for this is to take a page from the Oathbound setting.

Oathbound is another realm separated from the rest of the universe because it was specifically designed to trap and hold a deity.

The Eberron system is removed from the normal material universe because it’s progenitors were building a separate material universe for themselves. We all know what went down between them, but after that, what had been a joint project between 3 gods became a prison for the “survivors” despite that not being the place’s original intention. As the Realm of the Forge in Oathbound, the Eberron material plane is a god-trap.

So, basically, it’s nowhere.

How do you reach Eberron?

It is impossible to reach Eberron from the normal material plane. Reaching it requires using a starship’s plane-shifting engine during a coterminous event at a location that has a star pattern matching at least one of Eberron’s constellations. The reason this works is that the “Drift” engines in Starfinder pull a bit of the universe into the “drift,” Starfinder’s Hyperspace. A coterminous event is already pulling part of the universe into another, though.   So using the engine during one reverses the process, pulling something into the material universe, at least for the duration of the coterminous event.

By doing that at an alignment of stars that match the pattern of Eberron’s boundary stars, it pulls one of those boundary markers from Eberron into the normal material universe. The starship performing this maneuver can then board the boundary marker and be pulled into Ebberon’s space when the event ends and the boundary star returns.

Note that the “Boundary Stars” of Eberron aren’t suns like stars in the normal material universe are. They are unknown objects that mark the limits of Eberron’s material universe. The ritual I made up and detailed above simply uses one of them as a sort of ferry.

What are the Boundary Stars?

The Frontier from the movie
The Last Starfighter

Each Boundary Star exists both in its spot in the Eberron universe and also in a place outside/between all universes. It draws power from The-Place-Between. Together they delineate the boundaries of the material universe of Eberron inside that place between universes. Each is basically an automated space station though, a techno-arcane marvel made by the hands of 3 gods, the ones whose bodies now liter this material realm. If someone could access them from the Eberron side, they could use them to transfer out of the Eberron realm into the normal material universe nearly at will. Each is massive and could house numerous starships docked internally. They are covered in draconic runes that change and shift as the remains of the three progenitor dragons tumble around the space. Since no one has ever been to see them, no one knows what they say.

The stations not only act as boundary markers but as mentioned before, they draw power from the place between universes. Not just to power themselves, but they act like lenses, focusing that power into the center of the plane. The power itself comes from the energy released when a universe collapses and returns to the between state. 

Arrah, the Sun

The point where each Star-station focuses that power is Arrah, Eberron’s sun. Each station is programmed to reduce the output of its power transmission when anything lies between it and its focal point, the sun. That prevents any of the star stations from burning Eberron’s surface to ash and is why the stars are dim on the night side. Meanwhile, on the dayside, the focal point is so bright, you cannot make out the star stations themselves, only the focal point, the Sun.

Arrah is formed by the focal point of all the stars in Eberron’s sky, focusing together on its location. They focus power transmitted from the place between universes, which comes from the energy released from collapsing universes. It is essentially the burning ashes of dead universes. Fire is fire though, and can provide warmth or destruction regardless of its source. That process results in an extremely stable sun that can nevertheless dim and brighten depending on the number of things intervening between it and the star stations creating it.

The Planes

Since Eberron’s entire cosmology was formed artificially by the progenitor dragons but was essentially unfinished, it evolved from its original state to where it is now. The planes surrounding Eberron’s material plane form a framework out of tension and counter-tension between planar forces, which help prevent it from collapsing on its own. The planes each pull certain dominant forces into themselves and collect them together. That not only determines what they are made up of, but it creates a vacuum that leaves certain other planes devoid of those things. Irian and Mabar are classic examples of this. One formed from the light of Arrah, the other from the vacuum of its absence.

Of course, the Astral, Ethereal, and Shadow planes have a different nature entirely. They are essentially the framework that holds the cosmology both together and apart. However, even the Ethereal and Shadow planes exhibit the same opposing tension between them.

Now each plane was also constructed by one of the progenitor dragons and reflects that origin. However, they originally never were meant to be any more than the paints used to create the material universe. Each filled with its own colors. The progenitors fell to their fates before that could ever be realized. Instead, each has evolved in the ages since the progenitors fell into what it is today.

The Moons

That brings us to the nature of the moons. Like everything else in the Eberron system, they are not normal moons. Have you ever played with colored lights? Shining them onto the same space changes the colors you see. The moons of Eberron have a relationship to the planes like the lenses projecting the colored lights. Only the place they project them is onto Eberron. This combination of projected forces is why Eberron’s dominant planar influences are constantly shifting. Why conterminous events occur. It might take centuries of study to understand how they work fully, but they are responsible for why Eberron sustains life despite otherwise just being a dead husk.

The Sybaris Ring

The rings formed from Sybaris’ body are not merely the source of magic in 

Eberron. If the moons are lenses projecting planar energies from the planes, the rings act sort of like a graphics engine combining the projected images smoothly into the orderly pattern familiar to the mortals of Eberron. That prevents harsh projections from the moons from causing drastic and unpredictable changes to the world as they orbit. That is the vestiges of Sybaris’s will and care for the Eberron system it was making with its fellows. The magic produced by the ring is a byproduct of this process.

The residents of the rings are sentient living spells that have formed entire civilizations. If there are other residents, they are either very well hidden or long dead. That strange civilization is a post for another time, though.

What is Eberron like now?

Eberron itself and Khyber beneath it will have changed in the centuries between the last war and any scifi setting it became part of. Here in my headcanon, to make life easier for me, all the major political powers are still in place. What has changed, is that after the space race Keith described in his blog, the residents of this small system began learning more about their home. 

Eventually, through a journey of innumerable conflicts, and the guidance of the Gatekeeper druidic circle, most of the planes of Eberron are part of a shaky multidimensional alliance trying to figure out a way to escape the confines of the prison the progenitors made. This coalition is lead by a strange alliance between the Pit Fiends of Shavrath and House Deneith. Their primary competitors for power is a tense partnership between The Twelve, Houses Cannith and Orien, and the Quori of Dal Quor. Droaam is working directly with the Gatekeepers and Houses Kundarak and Ghallanda to help secure the whole of the planet against the forces that refused to join this alliance. 

Belashyrra, The Delkyr Lord of Eyes

The opposition has four major components.  The forces of Mabar whose hatred for life seeks to consume everything. The Delkyr of Xoriat have never relinquished their goal to remake the world in their image. Khyber and its Overlords who still seek to dominate everything and are unwilling to let any of Eberron’s residents slip through their grasp. Surprisingly the fourth is Daanvi who believes escaping the delineated boundaries of Eberron’s universe would constitute a violation of the whole of the natural order. 

That’s what I have for now. I still have a lot of holes to fill in and questions to answer. If you were considering using this, what questions would you want me to answer next?

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The Symbiotic Mimic

Can you guess where I am going with this?

Mimics are not particularly smart… but they are particularly hungry. Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there is a mimic or two that survived long enough to become smarter, to consider new ways of hunting. Maybe they observed the way an adventuring party worked together to overcome challenges they could not hope to survive on their own, and it thought to itself, “hunting like that would be better.” In fact, with adventuring parties being a mimics only real natural predator, maybe this evolving mimic thought to itself, “I should change the dynamic between my only natural predator and myself, and thereby become the apex predator.”

However, it reached it’s conclusion, this mimic took the next adventurer to adhere itself to it, and shape changed into a suit, covering the creature from head to toe... it’s companions were notably worried about it, but with no evidence of actual harm, they continued exploring the dungeon. The adventurer now wearing the mimic soon found out they were stronger, faster, oh so tougher, could walk on walls and ceilings, and their attacks were much more powerful. When they leave the dungeon, the strange suit that covered the adventure seems to shift and disappear and they returned to their normal appearance, only for the suit to reemerge whenever they are threatened.

That is how I imagine the first symbiotic mimic came into being.

In technical terms, here is what is happening:

• The mimic completely covers the wearer.
• They no longer benefit from armor they are wearing but do gain the Mimic’s natural armor of 12+their own dex modifier.
• Half the damage they receive (round down) is applied to the mimic instead of them. (9d8+12 HP)
• Both creatures benefit from the mimic’s immunities.
• If the wearer lacks Darkvision, they can benefit from the Mimic’s Darkvision 60 ft.
• When out of combat and not threatened, the mimic can take on the appearance of the creature wearing it. It still remains there but is indistinguishable from the creature underneath.
• The Mimic can apply or remove its adhesive to surfaces as it desires. This allows the wearer to walk on any wall or ceiling like the spider climb spell.
• If the mimic chooses, it can make other creatures touching the wearer adhere to them, grappling them if huge or smaller (escape DC 13 with disadvantage).
• The wearer gains advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.
• Whenever the wearer attacks with a melee weapon, the mimic bites the same target, using the wearer’s attack roll. If one hits, both hit. It uses the following profile:


• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) acid damage.


• In any situation the wearer can make an attack of opportunity, so can the mimic, using the following profile: 


• Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. If the mimic is in object form, the target is subjected to its Adhesive trait.

• The mimic can automatically perform the Aid Another action to help the wearer on most actions.
• Starting off, this would include any physical action.
• Once the mimic spends enough time in the wearer’s company it can learn its language and begin speaking to the wearer.
• It can then aid the wearer on most nonphysical actions as well. With the GM’s approval.
• If the wearer and the mimic share a language the mimic can even begin replicating various simple tools and equipment while worn.
• It must learn each new item it is to replicate the use of.
• To learn a new equipment, it must be taught the form, using the disguise skill to help it take on the appearance.
• It may learn one usable simple item for each point of the wearer’s proficiency modifier. Any further items learned remain mere disguises and are not functional.
• This can include melee weapons, but those melee weapons can not be thrown.
• If the mimic does not want the wearer to perform certain actions, it can attempt to take control of them. In this case each of them rolls opposed strength tests to determine who wins.
• Of course, if you really anger your Symbiotic Mimic, you are inside it, it could just start chewing. See bite damage above.

With all that in mind, you could do all kinds of things, like increase or decrease hit dice, even make it grow in power as the player (or villain) does.

Fair warning though, adding what is essentially a monster to the party, even if worn, might unbalance things, so if you are inexperienced, be careful what you do… and as always, have fun!

Come get your mimic suit today!

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