The Embrace of Darkness: New Warlock
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Otherworldy Patron: The
Unending Darkness
The cold embrace of death. The ultimate end of all beings.
For the light of life to exist, it must also cast a shadow that is
just as large. Your patron is not an individual, but a force of
the universe. You draw power directly from the Negative
Plane, a place of still air, darkness and death. You walk a fine
line with your dealings.
Any closer to the Negative Energy and you would would fall
dead in your tracks, your essence stolen by the suffocating
darkness. Great secrets of death and decay lie within the
energies of death. Perhaps you were introduced through a
cult, or you happened upon an ancient tome in a place of
great darkness. In any case, your introduction to this force is
a rarity.
You control an aspect of death, prolonging life, or bringing
forth the end. Warlocks of this patron often embody primal
emotion as well, most notably fear and anger. Contact with
the Negative Plane causes changes, subtle or large, in your
behaviour and beliefs.
Unending Darkness Expanded Spells
Spell Level Spells
1st ray of sickness, inflict wounds
2nd gentle repose, blindness/deafness
3rd animate dead, phantom steed
4th phantasmal killer, greater invisibility
5th raise dead, hallow
Depth of Darkness
Your understanding of Negative Energy and death's cold
embrace grants you an edge in dealing with the living.
Starting at 1st level, you have resistance to necrotic damage.
In addition, once per turn, when a spell you cast deals either
cold or necrotic damage, you can add your Charisma modifier
to the damage.
Call of the Grave
The dark energy you channel allows you to shrug off fatal
wounds at a hefty price. Starting at 6th level, when you would
make a death saving throw, you can instead spring to your
feet with unholy swiftness. As you rise, you let loose a blast of
necromantic energy. All creatues within 30 feet of you take an
amount of necrotic damage equal to 10 + your Charisma
modifier.
You regain a number of hit points equal to half of the total
damage dealt + your warlock level. You also gain resistance to
nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until
the end of your next turn, at which point you suffer two levels
of exhaustion. However, if the damage from the blast reduced
at least one hostile creature to 0 hit points, you instead suffer
only one level of exhaustion. You must finish a long rest
before you can use this feature again.
Dancing Darkness
Your affinity for Negative Energy allows you to modify the
shape and size of shadows. Starting at 10th level, as an
action, you can take control of the shadow of an object or
creature that is in bright light or dim light. As a bonus action,
you can cause the shadow to shrink or grow up to three times
its normal size, hiss/snicker quietly, or change its shape to
that of a creature within one size category of the target.
In addition, you can use a bonus action to command the
shadow to lift, push, or knock over objects. The shadow can
move an object that weighs up to a number of pounds equal
to 15 times your Charisma modifier.
As an action, you can also command a shadow within 100
feet of you to attempt to grapple its host. Make a melee spell
attack, using your warlock spell attack modifier. On a hit, the
target takes no damage, and is instead grappled by its
shadow. As a bonus action on your turn, you can command
the shadow to strangle the grappled creature, dealing 1d8
necrotic damage. The grapple persists until the target of the
grapple suucessfully breaks it. The target can attempt to
break the grapple by using an action on its turn to make a
Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against
your warlock spell save DC, breaking the grapple on a
success.
Harrowing of the Soul
At 14th level, you can tap into the Unending Darkness to
empower yourself. You have a pool of 10d6 that is restored
once you complete a long rest. As a bonus action, you reach
your hand out to touch a creature. Make a melee spell attack,
using your warlock spell attack modifier. If you hit the target,
you can expend as many dice from this pool as you like to
deal necrotic damage to the target equal to the result,
regaining a number of hit points equal to half of the damage
dealt (rounded up). If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points
with this feature, choose one of the following effects:
You lose one level of exhaustion.
You regain up to two spent warlock hit dice.
You gain the effect of a lesser restoration spell.
Your severed body members (fingers, legs, tails, and so
on), if any, are restored after 2 minutes. If you have the
severed part and hold it to the stump, the limb is instead
instantly knit to the stump.
THE EMBRACE OF DARKNESS
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Optional: Unending Darkness Flaws Reflex of the Rakshasa
d6 Flaw Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade, 9th level
1 You abhore sunlight, and prefer the comfort of shadows.
When you use your action to summon your pact weapon, you
2 You often speak to creatures of the Negative Plane can use your bonus action on the same turn to make a melee
absentmindedly, confusing and unnerving those around attack with that weapon.
you.
3 You have a compulsion to snuff out light wherever you Like a Balor in a Tea Shop...
see it. Even the dimmest glow bothers you to no end. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation and Athletics skills.
4 You have trouble understanding the mortal coil and day
to day problems of the living. Speaker of Many Worlds
5 Your touch withers small plants and turns small critters You can understand the meaning of any spoken exotic
pale, and beasts of any size are often hostile towards language you hear.
you.
6 During the day, or in a bright area, you must cover Kindred Spirits
yourself. The thought of being exposed to the light is Prerequisite: 9th level
unbearable.
You can cast warding bond at-will, without requiring material
components.
Eldritch Invocations
The following are additional options that may be chosen at From Celestia to Hell Unscathed
your DM's discretion. Prerequisite: 9th level
You can cast feather fall on yourself at-will, without requiring
Blade of Chaos material components.
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade, 14th level

After completing a short or long rest, you can choose one of Dark Flight
the following damage types to replace the type of damage Prerequisite: 9th level
normally associated with your pact weapon: fire, cold,
psychic, lightning, or necrotic. While in an area of dim light or darkness, your speed
You can also choose to have your weapon deal its normal increases by 10 feet.
damage type.
Shadowboxing
Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain, 5th level
Friends on the Other Side
Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain, 9th level When you forgo one of your own attacks to allow your
familiar to attack, it can make two attacks instead of one.
When you cast find familiar, you can choose one of the
following additional special forms: shadow, flumph, dust
mephit, ice mephit, magma mephit, mud mephit, smoke Blood Rites
Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain
mephit, or steam mephit.
You can cast false life on your familiar at will as a 1st-level
spell, without expending a spell slot or requiring material
components.
Legal / Product Info
The Embrace of Darkness, v. 2.1
Original Design by Reece Clark (/u/Darionmograin)
Edited by Stuart Litjen (/u/slitjen)
Formatted using The Homebrewery by naturalcrit
Additional Thanks to the /r/UnearthedArcana subreddit and
Redditors /u/Glumalon, /u/badjas42,
/u/TheWrongPerspective, and /u/Nereshai
Original image by Rajesh Misra, image in the public domain.
Image shown has been modified from the original version.
Changelog
Version 2.1
The extra damage from Depth of Darkness is now dealt
only once per turn.
Slightly different name for "Reflex of the Rakshasa"
Tried to clarify how the shadow makes the grapple
attempt in the third paragrph of Dancing Darkness
Page numbers!
There were also some concerns about the scope of
Dancing Darkness. I still think that it's a really cool concept,
and want to be able to keep it as a feature, so I would really
appreciate any playtest feedback that comes in.

Version 2.0
This was almost a complete rewrite from version 1. Most of
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, the concepts stayed the same, but all features were re-worded
Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, the dragon ampersand, and all and clarified, some features were added, and some were
other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their removed.
respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in
the USA and other countries.
This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of
the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with
permission under the Community Content Agreement for
Dungeon Masters Guild.
All other original material in this work is copyright 2016 by
both Reece Clark and Stuart Litjen and published under the
Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.

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THE EMBRACE OF DARKNESS

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