Noctis – Moon OF Dreams, Illusion, Madness, Inspiration

NOCTIS – MOON OF DREAMS, ILLUSION, MADNESS, INSPIRATION

Themes:
Noctis rules the border between waking and dream:

• Dreams, prophecy, nightmares
• Illusion and altered perception
• Creative madness, inspiration, and insight that cuts sideways
• Perpetual Twilight Valleys, auroral nights, and liminal spaces

A Noctis Cleric is:

• Oneiromancer, visionary, occult counselor
• Trickster‑priest, manipulator of minds and appearances
• Sometimes feared for their blurred line between revelation and insanity

Visually: bluish, oddly moving moon; priests favor deep indigo, silver, and masks or veils.

NOCTIS DOMAIN FEATURES BY LEVEL

These features are in addition to your base Lunar Cleric class.

Level 1 – Domain Spells & Dream‑Touched Initiate

Domain Spells

Always prepared; don’t count against your prepared spells.

• 1st:sleep, dissonant whispers
• 3rd:phantasmal force, calm emotions
• 5th:hypnotic pattern, major image
• 7th:confusion, phantasmal killer
• 9th:dream, synaptic static (or similar mental‑disruption spell)

You can reskin these to feel like “woven dreams” rather than clean arcane illusions.

Dream‑Touched Initiate

Noctis has already walked your dreams.

• You gain proficiency in Insight or Performance (your choice).
• Your sleep is not normal:
• You can gain the benefits of a long rest by entering a 4‑hour trance of lucid dreaming instead of 6–8 hours of sleep.
• You are still unconscious for most of it, but your mind remains partly aware:
• You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to notice threats that intrude on your resting space (e.g., someone walking through camp, a creature stepping over you).
• Once per long rest, when a creature within 30 ft that you can see:
• Fails a Wisdom saving throw vs charm or fear,
• You can use your reaction to redirect the emotional pattern:
• Choose a different creature within 30 ft of the original target.
• That creature must make the same save against your spell save DC.
• On a success, nothing happens; on a failure, it instead suffers the charm/fear effect, and the original target is unaffected.

This lets you twist emotional magic like a dream, shunting terror or fascination to another mind.

Level 2 – Channel Divinity: Veil of Noctis

You gain a Noctis‑specific Channel Divinity option.

Channel Divinity: Veil of Noctis

You drape the battlefield in a shifting dream‑veil.

• As an action, you invoke Noctis and create a 20‑ft‑radius sphere centered on a point you can see within 60 ft.
• The sphere lasts for 1 minute (concentration).
• Inside the sphere:
• Light becomes surreal twilight; colors bleed, sounds muffle.
• You choose which creatures are “favored” by the Veil (typically you and your allies).

Effects:

• Favored creatures in the Veil:
• Gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) and Charisma (Deception/Performance) checks.
• When they move, they can leave illusory afterimages; ranged attacks against them have disadvantage if the attacker does not have blindsight or truesight.
• Hostile creatures in the Veil:
• When they enter the area for the first time on a turn or start their turn there, they must make a Wisdom saving throw vs your spell save DC:
• On a failure:
• They have disadvantage on their next attack roll before the end of their turn, and
• They treat all creatures they see as lightly obscured (disadvantage on Perception relying on sight) until the start of their next turn.

You expend one use of Channel Divinity to create the Veil.
If you already have a Lunar Turn option, this is an additional choice when spending Channel.

Level 3 – (Base: Secondary Moon Influence I)

No Noctis‑specific feature; you pick your first secondary moon.

Level 4 – (Base ASI)

Level 5 – Dream Anchor

At 5th level, your influence over minds and dreams grows more precise.

Dream Anchor

You can “anchor” a fragment of your will in another’s psyche.

• When you cast a spell that:
• Deals psychic damage, or
• Is an enchantment or illusion that forces a saving throw,
• You can choose one affected creature to become Anchored to your dream‑thread.

Rules for the Anchor:

• You can have only one Dream Anchor active at a time.
• The Anchor lasts for 24 hours or until you apply it to a different creature.
• While a creature is Anchored:
• The first time each turn it makes a saving throw against one of your enchantment or illusion spells:
• If it succeeds on the save, you can force it to reroll the save once (it must take the new result).
• You have advantage on Insight checks against it, as you sense emotional “echoes” from its dreams.

Uses:

• You can apply Dream Anchor Wisdom modifier times per long rest (minimum 1).
• Applying the Anchor does not require an extra action; it’s part of casting the qualifying spell.

Level 6 – Channel Divinity: Night Terror / Gentle Dream

At 6th level, you gain a second Noctis Channel option, one with two faces.

Channel Divinity: Night Terror

You weaponize nightmare.

• As an action, choose a creature within 30 ft that can see or hear you.
• It must make a Wisdom saving throw vs your spell save DC.
• On a failure:
• For 1 minute (concentration):
• The creature is frightened of you, and
• At the start of each of its turns, it takes psychic damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) as flashes of terror intrude.
• The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

Alternatively:

Channel Divinity: Gentle Dream

You soothe minds with a benevolent dream‑pattern.

• As an action, choose up to 6 willing creatures within 30 ft.
• For 1 minute:
• They gain advantage on saving throws vs fear and charm.
• The first time each affected ally fails a Wisdom or Intelligence saving throw during this duration:
• They can reroll the save and must take the new result.

You choose Night Terror or Gentle Dream when you expend Channel Divinity.

Level 7 – (Base: Secondary Moon Influence II)

No extra Noctis feature.

Level 8 – (Base ASI)

Level 9 – Oneiric Messenger

Your mastery of dream‑paths lets you send messages and guidance through sleep.

Oneiric Messenger

• You learn to cast sending:
• You can cast sendingonce per long restwithout expending a spell slot, but with these limitations:
• The target must be:
• Asleep, or
• A creature you have met in person at least once.
• The message takes the form of a brief dream symbol or whispered words.
• When you cast the spell dream:
• Targets have disadvantage on their initial saving throw against the nightmare version, if you choose to harm them.
• Alternatively, when you send a pleasant or guiding dream:
• You can grant the target advantage on one d20 roll (attack, ability check, or saving throw) they make during the next 24 hours.
• You must declare this boon in the dream (e.g., “When you stand before the council, speak the third name; fate will favor you.”).

This makes Noctis Clerics powerful off‑screen manipulators of events via sleep.

Level 10 – Lunar Intervention (Base)

Same core mechanic; Noctis’s interventions might appear as:

• Sudden prophetic dreams that change an NPC’s mind.
• An enemy falling into a trance mid‑battle from a flash of nightmare.
• Illusory doubles of the party confusing foes.

No extra math; just flavor.

Level 11 – Aura of Surreality

Your presence warps the edge of perception.

Aura of Surreality

• While you are conscious, you emit a 10‑ft‑radius aura of subtle unreality.
• Within the aura:
• Allies:
• Gain a +1 bonus to saving throws vs psychic damage, fear, and charm.
• On their first missed attack each round, they can add 1d4 to the attack roll; if this causes the attack to hit, the target briefly sees a flickering afterimage of the ally striking from a different angle.
• Enemies:
• Have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to detect hidden creatures in the aura.
• Once per round, when they attack a creature in the aura and miss by 5 or less, you can flavor that as them striking an illusionary double.

This aura is low‑numerical but highly thematic, making ambushes and trickery more viable.

At 18th level, this aura will expand/improve.

Level 12 – (Base ASI)

Level 13 – Mind on the Edge

Noctis sharpens you at the boundary of insight and madness.

Mind on the Edge

• You gain resistance to psychic damage.
• You have advantage on saving throws vs confusion, insanity‑inducing effects, and any spell that would render you unconscious through mental overload (e.g., some homebrew Void effects).
• Once per long rest, when you:
• Fail an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw,
• You can choose to “snap” sideways:
• Treat the result as if you had rolled a 10 on the d20 (before modifiers).
• You also take psychic damage equal to your Cleric level, as your mind forcibly routes around the direct hit.

This lets you partially “refuse” catastrophic mind‑control at a cost.

Level 14 – (Base: Third Moon / Deeper Influence)

No additional Noctis‑specific feature.

Level 15 – Nightwatch Zenith (Base)

Your base Nightwatch feature is especially flavored for Noctis:

• Nightwatch in Noctis favor might generate shared dreams among party members.
• The GM can lean on this to foreshadow future events or reveal secrets.

No extra mechanics for Noctis beyond the base class, unless you later want a Noctis‑specific Nightwatch rider.

Level 16 – (Base ASI)

Level 17 – Noctis Confluence

At 17th, your Lunar Confluence gains a Noctis‑specific upgrade.

Noctis Confluence

While Lunar Confluence is active (1 minute):

• When a creature fails a saving throw against one of your enchantment or illusion spells:
• It is also stunned until the start of your next turn,
• But this can only happen once per creature per spell (you can’t repeatedly stun‑lock with a single persistent spell like hypnotic pattern).
• Your psychic damage spells gain an extra +1d8 psychic damage once per target (per spell cast), representing a deeper dream‑wound.
• Once during each Confluence, you can cast one enchantment or illusion spell of 5th level or lower that you know:
• Without expending a spell slot, and
• As a bonus action instead of its usual casting time, as long as its normal casting time is 1 action.

This is where a Noctis Cleric becomes terrifying in social encounters and high‑level boss fights.

Level 18 – Avatar of the Liminal

You become a living threshold between dream and waking.

Avatar of the Liminal

• Your Aura of Surreality radius increases to 30 feet.
• While conscious:
• You and allies in the aura cannot be put to sleep magically against your will.
• Allies in the aura gain advantage on saving throws vs illusions and psychic damage.
• Once per long rest, you can invoke a Mass Dreamwalk:
• As an action, choose up to 8 willing creatures within 30 ft.
• For the next 8 hours:
• All of you experience shared, lucid dreams whenever you sleep.
• During these dreams, you can:
• Freely communicate across long distances (same plane),
• Rehearse plans (granting each participant +1 to one roll the next day, GM’s discretion),
• Or explore symbolic versions of locations you’ve visited (GM narrative tool; not literal scouting but excellent for foreshadowing and character work).

This is mostly narrative power with small mechanical perks, fitting Noctis’s role as patron of stories and inner journeys.

Level 19 – (Base ASI)

Level 20 – Lunar Avatar (Base)

Your Lunar Avatar capstone already handles the mythic transformation. For Noctis, this might look like:

• Your body dissolving into starlit mist and shadow.
• Multiple semi‑real versions of you moving in sync.
• Enemies striking phantoms and falling into waking nightmares.

Mechanics are as per the base class; this is flavor alignment.