Asylum Origin (5e Subclass)
Asylum Origin[edit]
Sorcerer Subclass
The sad truth of the world is that, often, those that need the best, most delicate care receive the harshest, the least beneficial, even the cruelest. So it can be with asylums in the Forgotten Realms [or insert your setting here]. The depressed are thrown in with the psychotic; the disturbed treated the same as the schizophrenic. And what is the method of treatment preferred by the sadistic and underqualified alike for every malady of the mind? Electric shock. Every quack that ever thumbed through a tome far enough to equate a brain with electric pulses thinks a ride on the lightning will fix every patient. Another sad truth is that not every patient delivered to the asylum’s door has a need for any treatment. Not a single resident needs to be tortured. But each and every inmate — and they are inmates — takes a turn connected to the coil. All suffer. Some die. But some adapt, and those are the ones to look out for. Between the electricity being pumped into their bodies, the horrors surrounding them, and the sheer disturbance behind every thought in their vicinity, Asylum Sorcerers — what the less sophisticated call “Psycho Sorcerers”, “Wackos Witches”, or “Madhouse Mages” — develop powers related to lightning, fear, and psychic damage. These adaptations arise from equal parts experience and desperation. The body needs to resist and draws in what it has access to. Woe be to the “doctor” whose patient take this path. Woe, not sympathy. Sometimes you reap what you sow. If what you sow is lightning, trauma, and terror, an Asylum Sorcerer will be the one that reaps you.
Trauma Scars[edit]
The type of trauma they put you through leaves a mark, both inside and out. Roll or choose your physical remnant of your time in the asylum.
| d6 | Physical remnant |
|---|---|
| 1 | The skin on your temples is permanently blackened. |
| 2 | Patches of hair on the sides and/or top of your head are burned away. |
| 3 | The pupils of your eyes are misshapen and the color of your irises seeps into the whites of your eyes. |
| 4 | You constantly give and receive electric shocks from casual contact. |
| 5 | Your ears buzz and your eyes move rapidly on their own. |
| 6 | Your hair and eyes glow faintly with perpetual blue-white sparks. |
Asylum Spells[edit]
You learn either the mind sliver or shocking grasp cantrip. Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can switch between these two cantrips, but you will always have one or the other prepared. (It is possible to have both as both are options on the sorcerer spell list.)
Additional spells are also learned when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Asylum Spells table. Each spell counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know. These spells can’t be replaced when you gain a level in this class.
Whenever you gain a sorcerer level, you can replace one spell you gained from this feature with another spell of the same level. The new spell must be an enchantment spell from the sorcerer, bard, warlock, or wizard spell list. (Or you can choose to restore one these spells that you had previously changed.)
| Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | cause fear, dissonant whispers |
| 3rd | pyrotechnics, Tasha's mind whip |
| 5th | enemies abound, lightning bolt |
| 7th | phantasmal killer, private sanctum |
| 9th | modify memory, synaptic static |
Diminishing Returns[edit]
By 1st level, you have already faced more suffering than any creature should endure in a lifetime. Between the deprivation, “therapy”, and the horrors in your own mind, what more could anyone or anything do to you? You have resistance to lightning and psychic damage. You also never have disadvantage to save against the frightened condition, and if a frightened condition requires you to run away from its source, you can use your reaction to attempt to resist the urge to dash with a successful Charisma saving throw, freeing up your action for something potentially more useful.
Residual Charge[edit]
Also at 1st level, the electricity they pumped into your body in the name of “treatment” still lingers within you. Each time a creature damages you with a melee weapon attack, they must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell DC or take your proficiency bonus in lightning damage. If the attack is made with a metal weapon, the attacker has disadvantage on the save.
Soothing Mantra[edit]
At 6th level, you elevate your ability to self-soothe. As an action, you can recite your personal mantra and break yourself free from a condition. That condition can be blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, or poisoned.
If you are suffering a condition that deprives you of your action, you can attempt a Charisma saving throw to resist that deprivation enough to mumble your mantra. In such a case, a successful save removes the targeted condition and your turn ends.
Trauma Response[edit]
Also at 6th level, your paranoid instincts enable you to protect yourself from threats in an instant. When you roll initiative, you can use your reaction to expend two sorcery points to immediately cast a spell with a casting time of an action or bonus action that only affects yourself. (Note: a spell with a range of self that immediately affects or damages other creatures does not qualify.) The exertion of this instantaneous response leaves you slightly off balance for your first turn in combat, depriving you of that round’s bonus action.
If you are surprised, you won’t be able to use your reaction before your turn, thus this feature would not be an option.
[edit]
At 14th level, when you deal damage with a spell of 1st level or higher, you can use 1 sorcery point to change the damage to psychic or lightning. You can make this change even if you are using metamagic with the spell. You also have benefits related to these damage types.
- Any time you deal lightning damage with a cantrip, you can add your proficiency bonus to the damage.
- Any time you deal psychic damage with a cantrip, you can force the target to make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you until the start of your next turn.
- Once per round when you take damage, you can attempt a Charisma saving throw (no action necessary). On a success, half of that damage becomes psychic or lightning damage (your choice each time). Necrotic and radiant damage cannot be changed this way, nor can damage that is already psychic or lightning. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, regaining all uses at the end of long rest.
This Feels Familiar[edit]
Also at 18th level, when you take lightning or psychic damage, you can gain a number of sorcery points equal to one tenth the damage of that type you received, rounded up. (If you take 23 lightning damage, you can gain 3 sorcery points). You can then immediately use your reaction to expend some or all of those sorcery points to cast a known spell of a level equal to the points expended. A spell cast this way may have a casting time of one reaction, one bonus action, or one action. A damage spell cast this way automatically uses the Shared Suffering feature (without extra sorcery point cost) to deliver the same damage type you received to trigger this effect.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
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