Your pact is not with a single being but with the tear in the world itself—the Rift—and the strange intelligences that nest in its fractures. Where other warlocks look to heavens, hells, or distant stars, you look into the raw absence between them, and something in that absence looks back.
Some Rift patrons are openly malevolent, hungry to see the world split open and remade in their image. A Sovereign
Riftspawn might whisper to you from a churning breach, promising power in exchange for letting its kin through. The Shard of a Drowned Titan could claw at the edges of your mind, offering reality-warping spells as it schemes to reassemble itself from the pieces scattered across the planes. A
Rift-Torn Avatar of Ruin, born when a mortal’s spirit got caught halfway in and halfway out of the breach, might urge you to tear down empires so the “truer” reality can break through.
Others are only semi-benevolent—dangerous, but not entirely cruel. A calculating Containment Intelligence woven from wards, runes, and old oaths might use you as a scalpel to cauterize unstable
Breachpoints before they burst. An exhausted Rift Warden-Remnant, the lingering echo of a guardian who died holding the line, could guide your hand to seal cracks and rescue those already touched by Corruption. A distant Archivist of Lost Realities, a chorus of minds that remembers worlds that never were, may trade you forbidden spells and glimpses of alternate timelines in exchange for new data from your travels.
Whether your patron wants to spread the Rift, stitch it shut, or simply observe what breaks when reality bends, you have become its agent. Your magic warps distance, twists elements into Psychic and void-chill, and lets you push your body and soul closer to
Rift Corruption than most mortals can survive.
Level 3: Rift Spells
The magic of your patron ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a
Warlock level specified in the Rift Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
In addition, you learn one of the following cantrips of your choice:
Rift-Fallen Ember or
Rift-Strike. Whenever you gain a
Warlock level, you can change your chosen cantrip from this feature.
Level 3: Rifted Cantrips
The Rift twists not just where your magic comes from, but what it is made of.
Whenever you cast a cantrip that deals damage, you can change one damage type to Cold, Force, Necrotic, or Psychic instead of its normal type.
Level 3: Warped Reality
Your connection to the Rift lets you distort space and cast through other beings as if their bodies were cracks in the world.
When you cast a spell with a range other than Self, you can choose one creature you can see within 60 feet of you to act as a conduit. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Ally Conduit. If the creature is a willing Ally, the spell originates from the Ally’s space instead of yours, the Ally gains Temporary Hit Points equal to the your Proficiency Bonus plus your Charisma modifier, and the Ally has Advantage on the next saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn.
Enemy Conduit. If the creature is an Enemy, it must make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC. This saving throw happens before you choose which spell. On a failed save, the spell originates from that Enemy’s space, and It can’t make Opportunity Attacks until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, the conduit attempt fails and you cannot attempt it again this turn, but you can still choose to cast any spell as normal from your own space or choose not to cast a spell at all.
Level 6: Rift-Hardened Overcast
By letting the Rift seep deeper into you, you overclock your spells while hardening yourself against the taint that would break others.
Overcast. When you cast a spell using one of your Pact Magic spell slots (not a Mystic Arcanum), you can choose to Overcast it. The spell is treated as if it were cast one spell level higher than the slot you expended. If the spell deals damage, you can change one damage type to Cold, Force, Necrotic, or Psychic. At the end of the turn, you gain 1 level of
Rift Corruption.
You can Overcast a spell this way a number of times equal to your Proficiency Ponus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Rift-Hardened Vessel. Your body and mind adapt to the Rift’s strain. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid and naturally recover from
Rift Corruption and Rift Madness. For the purpose of determining the penalties and symptoms you suffer from
Rift Corruption, you are treated as if your current
Rift Corruption level were 1 level lower than it actually is. This does not change your actual Corruption level on the track and does not delay or prevent any transformation into a
Riftspawn.
Level 10: Deep Rift Adaptation
Your body has become so saturated with Rift energy that it resists the final stages of transformation.
You do not transform into a
Riftspawn until you reach 7 levels of
Rift Corruption, instead of the normal threshold.
Level 10: Rift Ward
Your patron teaches you to catch hostile force in a net of broken space and feed it back to the attacker.
When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you takes damage, you can use your Reaction to summon a barrier of unstable Rift energy. The barrier reduces the damage taken by 3d8 + your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1), and the attacker takes damage equal to half the amount of damage reduced. The damage type is your choice of Cold, Force, Necrotic, or Psychic each time you use this feature.
If the attacker is a creature, it must also make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC, or be teleported to an unoccupied space you can see within range if its current position as the Rift folds around it. The distance you can teleport the creature is a number of feet equal to 5 times your Proficiency Bonus.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest. You can also expend a Pact Magic spell slot (no action required) to regain one use of this feature.
Level 14: Revelation of the Rift
Your patron allows you to tear open a hole in a creature’s perception and drown it in the truth of the Rift.
As a Magic action, choose one creature you can see within 90 feet of you. The air around the target ripples with impossible angles and colors only it can see. The target must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failure, its mind is seized by the vision as it takes 8d10 Psychic damage and has the Paralyzed condition until the end of your next turn. The Paralyzed condition ends early if the creature takes damage from any source other than one of its allies. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much Psychic damage and is not Paralyzed.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest, unless you expend a Pact Magic spell slot (no action required) to restore your use of it.
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