Departed (5e Class)

Departed

“This body is but a vessel. The real me has seen countless bodies, each of which eventually were returned to dust. My soul, however? That is the sort that never ages, never corrodes. I will live forever, at least in that way.” - Viktor Lariza, Eternal Magister and Overseer of the Final Death

Our Dearly Departed

Most necromancers, liches, blood mages and those who otherwise toy with life and its gifts are usually wizards gone rogue; intelligent, conniving, and morose magicians who have achieved dominion over life through intricate ritual. The Departed, however, are different. Necromancers do not toy with their soul, they toy with the souls of others. Liches bury and hide their souls in far off artifacts to stave off death. Instead, departed actively welcome death, more often than not many times. Either through equally intensive ritual, dark pacts, or interactions with the otherworldly, a departed gains unparalleled control over its own death. They have exerted unimaginable resolve in order to harness the ghastly power one can find when bringing a soul towards the end of its life, only to then, after having been “defeated”, rise again with knowledge that only the dead can possess. For a departed, pain and suffering are tools one can wield to bring out a power seldom seen or utilized.

Creating a Departed

A member of the Order of the Ancient Chant by Maéna Paillet

When creating a departed, it's very important to consider your character's relation with death. Are they well experienced and have pushed the boundaries of how far they can stay alive in order to see just how much power they can accrue, to the extent that they’ve died hundreds of times? Are they new to the necromantic arts and still flinch at great pain and hardship? It's also important to consider where your character draws its power, or even if it was intentional. Did your character research dark and ancient magic in order to permanently increase their lifespan, only for it to backfire and now it is only their soul that can live on? Did they make a pact with some unknowable deity, forever kept alive in a state of eternal servitude?

Quick Build

You can make a Departed quickly by following these suggestions. First, Wisdom should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution. Second, choose the Hermit background. Third, choose Insight and Perception for your skills.

Class Features

As a Departed you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d12 per Departed level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + Constitution modifier per Departed level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple Weapons
Tools: Poisoner's Kit
Saving Throws: Constitution, Wisdom
Skills: Choose two from Insight, Investigation, Perception, Intimidation, Arcana, and Deception

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) A handaxe or (b) a spear
• (a) A light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) ten javelins
• (a) A dungeoneer's pack or (b) a scholar's pack
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 5d4*10gp in funds.

Table: The Departed

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Entropy Dice	Cantrips Known	Spells Known	—Spell Slots per Spell Level—
						1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	+2	Spellcasting, Fighting Style, Entropy Dice, Dark Magics	d4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	Beyond Death's Door	d4	2	2	2	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	Powers, Power Feature	d4	2	3	3	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	d4	3	3	3	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	Remedy Through Agony	d6	3	4	4	2	—	—	—
6th	+3	Power Feature	d6	3	4	4	2	—	—	—
7th	+3	Supplicants	d6	3	5	4	3	—	—	—
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	d6	3	5	4	3	—	—	—
9th	+4	Fear and Darkness	d6	3	6	4	3	2	—	—
10th	+4	—	d6	4	6	4	3	2	—	—
11th	+4	Warp Death	d6	4	7	4	3	3	—	—
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement, Power Feature	d8	4	7	4	3	3	—	—
13th	+5	Resurrection	d8	4	8	4	3	3	1	—
14th	+5	—	d8	4	8	4	3	3	1	—
15th	+5	Knowledge of Many Lives Gone By	d8	4	9	4	3	3	2	—
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	d8	4	9	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+6	Die to Live Again	d8	4	10	4	3	3	3	1
18th	+6	Power Feature	d10	4	10	4	3	3	3	1
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	d10	4	11	4	3	3	3	2
20th	+6	Wither Away	d12	4	11	4	3	3	3	2

Spellcasting

At 1st level, your great many lifetimes and the intricate, unique wisdom that comes from knowing death intimately has given you the ability to cast spells.

Cantrips

At 1st level, you know two cantrips of your choice from the departed spell list. At higher levels, you learn additional departed cantrips of your choice, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Departed table.

When you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the departed cantrips you know with another cantrip from the departed spell list.

Spell Slots

The departed table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a spell slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

At 2nd level, you know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the departed spell list.

The Spells Known column of the departed table shows when you learn more departed spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the departed spells you know and replace it with another spell from the departed spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your departed spells. Your magic comes from the many things you've learned through several lifetimes of experience. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your Spellcasting Ability, where all your departed spells scale with your Wisdom modifier. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a departed spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + Proficiency bonus + Wisdom modifier

Spell attack modifier = Proficiency bonus + Wisdom modifier

Entropy Dice

At 1st level, in exchange for some of your vitality, you gain access to more potent magics. When your hit points meet or go below certain amounts, known as hit point thresholds, you deal additional damage on any damage roll unless specifically mentioned that you don’t. Your hit point thresholds are 70, 50, 30, and 10 percent of your maximum hit points. For every one of these thresholds you meet, you deal an additional die of damage, the die level of which is found in the Entropy Die column in the table above.

Dark Magics

At 1st level, you've learned certain forgotten magics; dark and ancient things that feed on life. Some actions you can take as a departed may require a DC and an attack modifier. These are used for any of your departed abilities that ask you to make an attack Roll against a creature or ask a creature to make a saving throw.

Dark Magics Save DC = 8 + Wisdom modifier + proficiency bonus

Dark Magic Attack Modifier = Wisdom modifier + proficiency bonus

Additionally, you gain the following features:

Hungering Beam

You fire a beam of concentrated death, a terrible thing famished by a lack of life. As an action, you can deal 1d6 damage to yourself and force every creature within a 5 foot wide, 30 foot long line to make a Dexterity saving throw. If they fail, they take 1d6 necrotic damage and their movement speed is halved. If they succeed, they take half damage and their movement speed is not reduced.

For every two hit point thresholds you meet you deal an additional die of damage.

While at, or below, your 30 or 10 hit point threshold, creatures that fail the saving throw will also make either Strength or Dexterity rolls with disadvantage until the beginning of your next turn. You choose whether it is Strength or Dexterity rolls.

Screamer Expulsion

You let the ear-piercing screams of the dead fill the air around you, blasting your surroundings with unwholesome energies. As an action, you can deal 1d8 damage to yourself and use this ability; every creature within 15 feet of yourself must make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they take 1d8 necrotic damage and are pushed backwards 5 feet.

For every two Hit point thresholds you meet you deal an additional die of damage.

While at, or below, your 30 or 10 hit point threshold, creatures are knocked prone and pushed 15 (instead of 5) feet back when they fail their saving throw.

Siphon Pain

A part of you yearns for feeling, any sort of emotional response that can remind you that you're alive, even pain. When a creature you can see within 60 feet of you takes damage, you can expend your reaction to take the damage instead.

If the damage you took for the creature causes you to either be reduced to or below zero hit points or causes you to make a Constitution saving throw in association with your beyond death’s door ability, roll your entropy dice as if it were a damage roll; the creature you chose gains an amount of temporary hit points equal to what you rolled.

Beyond Death’s Door

At 2nd level you've managed to maintain some facsimile of life long after you should be dead. When you take damage that would reduce you below one hit point, you are instead reduced to one hit point and this ability activates. Each time you take damage while this ability is active, you must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC equal to half the damage dealt. The saving throws DC cannot be less than 10 and it cannot be greater than 25. If you fail the saving throw, you take damage as normal.

You can use this ability once, after which you must complete a long rest in order to do so again. If combat ends before you fail the Constitution saving throw associated with this ability, you retain a usage of it.

Fighting Style

Additionally at 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a fighting style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Archery

You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

Blind Fighting

You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.

Close Quarters Shooter

When making a ranged attack while you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature, you do not have disadvantage on the attack roll. Your ranged attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover against targets within 30 feet of you. You have a +1 bonus to attack rolls on ranged attacks.

Dueling

When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Great Weapon Fighting

When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

Protection

When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.

Interception

When a creature you can see hits a target, other than you, within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.

Unarmed Fighting

Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier on a hit. If you aren't wielding any weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8. At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to one creature grappled by you.

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Thrown Weapon Fighting

You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon. In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.

Tunnel Fighter

As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your reaction, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach.

Powers

At 3rd level, you chose a power that defines your specific practice as a departed. Before this you have dabbled in all manner of dubious magical ritual; perhaps raising the dead here, manipulating the soul there, so on and so forth. Your choices of powers are detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 12th, and 18th level.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Remedy Through Agony

At 5th level, you've begrudgingly learned a minor, although potent, healing magic. By expending an action, you deal an amount of damage to yourself equal to the damage your entropy dice would deal at your 10 hit point threshold and a creature you choose that is within 30 feet of you and you can see gains an amount of hit points equal to the damage you took. If the damage you took from this ability would cause you to make a Constitution saving throw in association with your Beyond death’s door ability, you make the saving throw with advantage.

Extra Attack

Additionally at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the attack action on your turn.

Supplicants

At 7th level, you've made careful pacts with those around you; contractual promises that, in a time of need, they shall send you their pain. By expending an action, you may choose an amount of creatures that you can see and that are within 60 feet of you equal to your Wisdom modifier; the creatures you chose are considered supplicants.

By expending an action, you can activate the latent necromantic energies laid in those choices and activate this ability. You create a pool of pain, which has an amount of hit points in it equal to your hit point maximum. While this ability is active, any supplicants within 30 feet of you that take damage automatically halve that damage between itself and you. If the halved damage is uneven, you take the larger half. Each time you take damage through this ability, the damage is subtracted from your pool of pain; when your pool of pain has been reduced to, or below, zero hit points this ability ends and cannot be used again until you have completed a long rest.

This ability ends either after the pool of pain's hit points have been reduced to, or below, zero, if you use a bonus action to end it, or if combat ends. If the ability is ended through the expenditure of a bonus action or if combat ends and half or more of the pool is left, then you retain usage of the feature.

Additionally, if you are reduced to, or below, zero hit points, or if you fail a Constitution saving throw made in association with your beyond death’s door ability, you can expend your reaction to deal 2d10 necrotic damage (do not add your entropy dice to this damage) to one of your supplicants and instead be reduced to one hit point. You can use this specific ability once, after which you must finish a long rest in order to do so again.

Fear and Darkness

While studious arcana and powerful magic are excellent tools in a necromancer's arsenal, the palpable weakness created through fear and darkness is equally as useful. At 9th level, you gain the following abilities. You can use these a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus + Wisdom modifier. You regain all expended uses after a long rest.

Terrify

You poison the battlefield with rising corpses, throaty whispers carried by the wind, and an unignorable stench of death. By dealing 4d8 damage to yourself and expending an Action, you force all creatures within a 30 foot cone to make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they accrue one stack of terror and take 3d6 psychic damage.

Deep Murmurs

You single out a creature against the clamor and cacophony of the battlefield, drawing upon its deepest fears in order to destroy it wholly. You choose a creature you can see that is within 80 feet of you; that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, it amasses two stacks of terror and a creature representative of it's fears is manifested within an unoccupied space within 15 feet of the creature. This creature possesses your initiative in combat, but takes its turn immediately after yours. During its turn, you choose what it does, and it has statistics and abilities listed in the stat block below. Refer to the stat block for controlling the creature.

This Manifestation of Fear and terror is only visible to the creature who failed the saving throw and cannot be rendered visible to other creatures who did not fail the saving throw. If you choose another creature with deep murmurs and that creature fails the saving throw while this manifestation is currently visible to another creature, it is then rendered invisible to the first creature and visible to the second. The Manifestation of Fear is only visible to the newest creature that failed the saving throw associated in deep murmurs.

If the Manifestation of Fear is reduced to, or below, zero hit points it disappears from view and cannot be summoned through deep murmurs until you complete a short rest. Before you do complete a short rest, when creatures fail the Wisdom saving throw they amass terror as normal but, instead of the Manifestation of Fear being summoned, they take 3d8 psychic damage and an additional amount of d4s worth of psychic damage equal to the creatures stacks of terror.

Manifestation of Fear

Medium undead, unaligned Armor Class 15 Hit Points Equal to the roll of your maximum amount of Entropy Dice Speed 35 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) Saving Throws Wisdom + your PB Damage Immunities Poison Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, poisoned Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10 + PB Languages Understands the languages you speak Proficiency Bonus (PB). This creatures proficiency bonus equals your own. Wisdom Score. This creatures Wisdom score equals your own. Figment of the Imagination. This creature does not suffer movement penalties for difficult terrain. Additionally, this creature may walk through solid objects such as walls or creatures in a similar manner to the Meld With Stone spell; however, if the creature ends its turn inside a solid object or creature they remain where they are and suffer no damage. ACTIONS Psychic Pains. Melee Spell Attack: + Wis. Mod. to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 3d8 + Wis. Mod. Psychic damage (you do not add your entropy dice to this damage) Display Tragedy (3/Day). Choose a creature within 30 feet of you; that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to yours). If they fail, they gather two stacks of terror and take an amount of d6s worth of psychic damage (you do not add your entropy dice to this damage) equal to the stacks of terror the creature had when they failed this save.

Encroaching Darkness

All creatures have an evolutionary fear of the dark, whether because of their innate fear of the unknown or because their ancestors huddled around fires in order to escape the things that thrived in the blackness. Choose a point within 60 feet of you; all creatures in a 30 foot radius of that point must make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they collect one stack of terror and they perceive the light levels around them at one level less than they truly are.

If a creature affected by this ability ends their turn in a space they perceive to be dim or dark light, they must make a Wisdom saving throw, subtracting an amount from the roll equal to its stacks of terror. If they fail, they take 3d6 necrotic damage and they accrue a stack of terror.

Terror and the Terrified Condition

The three abilities above inflict stacks of terror and rely upon a class-specific condition called terrified. A creature can only have a maximum of six stacks of terror, after which their stacks are reduced to zero, and they are considered terrified. When a creature is terrified, their movement speed is reduced to zero and they cannot take reactions so long as they can see you; a terrified creature can expend its action to make a Wisdom saving throw in order to end the terrified condition, and it may attempt a Wisdom saving throw at the end of its turn.

Warp Death

At 11th level, your powers have grown enough that you can move the death of others. When a creature within 30 feet of you is reduced to, or below, 0 hit points, you can choose to take that damage instead. If this dealing of damage causes you to make a Constitution saving throw in association with your beyond death’s door ability, you automatically fail its saving throw.

You can use this ability an amount of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, after which you must complete a long rest in order to do so again.

Resurrection

At 13th level, your control over death and its energies is masterful and uncontested; you do not stay dead for very long. When you fail the Constitution saving throw in association with your beyond death’s door ability, or if you take enough damage to reduce you to, or below, zero hit points, you may expend your reaction to gain an amount of hit points equal to half of your maximum amount of entropy dice.

You can use this ability once, after which you must complete a long rest in order to do so again.

Knowledge of Many Lives Gone By

At 15th level, you've accrued, over your many deaths, a knowledge that only someone in your position can have. Each time you are rendered unconscious by taking damage, choose three skills or one saving throw. Either the one saving throw or the three skills gain a permanent +1 bonus. This bonus cannot exceed a collective bonus of +10. For example, if you already have a +9 to the Medicine skill, but you are rendered unconscious by taking damage, you can choose to increase that +9 bonus to +10; but, because the entire bonus you add to rolls of that check is +10, you cannot add any more +1 bonus’ to that skill through this feature.

You can use this ability once, after which you must complete a long rest in order to do so again.

Additionally, you are considered proficient in death saving throws.

Die to Live Again

At 17th level, death, even your own, is a means to an end for you, that end being limitless power. When you are killed you will eventually return to life without the aid of healing magics or any resurrection spells. So long as your body is not completely destroyed, in a similar extreme manner as a disintegrate spell, and your soul is free and willing, your soul, over the course of 1d4+1 days after you’ve died will return to your body, returning you to life. When you are returned to life, you awake in the space that you had been killed in with one hit point. When you are returned to life in this way, a few notable changes occur: your creature type changes to Undead; you become immune to all disease, the poisoned condition, exhaustion, and poison damage; and you do not need to eat, breathe, or sleep; and, instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for four hours each day, during which you are fully aware of your surroundings. Additionally, after having been returned to life through this method, you may choose a boon of the dead, which is listed at the end of this class description.

If your body is not intact, you must find a suitable replacement. There are two methods of finding a replacement, those being possessing a living creature or possessing a dead creature. Regardless of which process you choose, the creature or body you choose to possess must be of the humanoid creature type. If the creature type of your character is not humanoid, the creature or body you choose to possess may instead be of that creature type.

Possessing the Dead

If your original body is extremely damaged or you simply choose not to repair it if it is not beyond fixing, you may choose to possess a dead creature, that being a corpse or skeleton. The creature you choose does not need to be in excellent condition, but the majority of it must still be intact. When you possess the creature, much of the information about your character changes. Your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores stay the same, and your Constitution score changes; add your Constitution score and the Constitution score of the stat block (either a zombie or a skeleton), and then divide that number by 2. This new number is your new Constitution score. You lose any skill or saving throw proficiencies that are not based in Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, or Constitution, but be sure to keep track of what Strength or Dexterity skills or saving throws you were proficient in, if any. You keep any languages you know, but you are incapable of speech until your vessel is repaired. Your other ability scores, your creature size, movement speed, and any abilities granted by your chosen race are lost and instead replaced with the relevant information of one of the stat blocks. There are two choices of stat blocks; a zombie or a skeleton. Refer to the stat blocks of a skeleton or zombie to determine what changes occur to your character.

Every day you focus all of your physical and mental energy to repair the dead creature you've inhabited so that it functions to your liking. Once every day, you may attempt an amount of Arcana checks equal to as many following parameters have been changed as a result of you possessing a dead creature; your Strength ability score, your Dexterity ability score, and your movement speed. Attempting these Arcana checks is an exhausting practice, so regardless if you succeed or fail you are not capable of anything else for that day. There is also a creature size parameter if your character was not a medium sized creature. The DC of these Arcana checks is 18. If you succeed an Arcana check, the parameter of which you made the check for is returned to its previous state. For instance, if you originally had 35 feet of movement, but your movement speed was changed to 20 after possessing a zombie and you succeeded the Arcana check, then your movement speed is returned to 35 feet. Additionally, when you succeed the Arcana check related to your Dexterity ability score, you become capable of speech again. When all of the Arcana checks have been succeeded, you regain any Strength or Dexterity skill or saving throw proficiencies you lost, and your Constitution score returns to its original amount.

Possessing the Living

If your original body is extremely damaged or you choose not to repair it if it is not beyond fixing, you may choose to possess and eventually take full control over a living body. When this happens, you become an incorporeal wisp of light and energy. You are capable of movement, flight, and perception, but cannot receive or cause damage. In this temporary form, you have a flight speed of 60 feet and can pass through physical objects. When you encounter another creature while in this form, you can attempt to possess it. If the creature is a higher level than you or has a CR higher than ¼ of your level, you cannot attempt to possess the creature. Additionally, if the creature has a Wisdom score higher than yours, you cannot attempt to possess them. If you attempt to possess a creature and it does not possess these restrictions, you successfully bind yourself to the creature. Once every day that you are bound to the creature, you and the creature must make a contested Wisdom check. This contest is exhausting for both you and the creature, but only you receive any mechanical detriments; regardless if you succeed or fail the contest you are not capable of anything else that day. If the creature fails a total of seven times, you successfully destroy its willpower and possess it completely. When you possess the creature completely, your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Constitution scores stay the same, but you retain the creature's Strength and Dexterity Scores. You also gain the following: any weapon, Strength or Dexterity skill proficiencies that the creature had and any languages the creature knew. You also have your creature size, movement speed, and any abilities or features granted by your race replaced with the same information of the creatures.

Repairing the Vessel

If your body is thoroughly damaged but still somewhat intact, you may choose to attempt to repair it instead of finding a new vessel. Depending on what you rolled on your 1d4+1 to determine how long until you will be capable of returning to your body, the process of repairing your body will take a certain amount of effort. The amount of effort, in conjunction with the amount of days after the body has been killed, is detailed in the table below.

Days Since Capability of Return	Amount Required from Checks
Two days	30
Three days	40
Four days	50
Five days or more	70

Once every day, you may choose to repair your body, making you attempt a Arcana or Medicine check. Repairing dead tissue is a exhausting practice, so regardless of the checks results you are not capable of anything else for that day. There is no DC for this check, there is only the total amount required from checks, which is detailed in the table above. Every time you make an Arcana or Medicine check, subtract it from the amount required from checks part of the table that corresponds with how long your body has been dead for. Once that amount has been reduced to, or below, zero, your body reanimates as is ruled in the paragraph immediately underneath your die to live again ability.

Wither Away

At 20th level, you've learned to channel pure, intense, soul-siphoning energy into living beings. Choose a creature you can see that is not undead; that creature must make a Constitution saving throw, and it must be at disadvantage if you are at, or below, your 10 or 30 hit point threshold. If the creature fails, it takes an amount of necrotic damage equal to twice your entropy dice, of which you also take half. If this dealing of damage kills the creature, it is killed as if by the Disintegrate spell. If the damage dealt to you would cause you to make a Constitution saving throw in association with your beyond death’s door ability, you automatically fail its saving throw.

You can use this ability once, after which you must complete a long rest in order to do so again.

Power of the Mad Pattern

There are many things that drive people to push beyond their limits; pure motivation, a moment of intense emotion, magical force, and insanity. The Order of the Mad Pattern opts for the last one, indulging in their immediate impulses, acting irrationally, and making secret pacts with creatures that would make even the most strong willed of individuals break on the spot. In all honesty, not even the most investigative necromantic orders understand the Order of the Mad Pattern. Indeed, many of the order's own members cannot remember why they joined or where they draw their powers. The Order of the Mad Pattern overall seems very scattered; its members seem to have no common ground, with many having different backgrounds and even use varying ritualistic routine as apparent sources of power. However, there is one underlying connection. All of them keep, either etched in stone, parchment, blood, or bone, strange drawn patterns. Eyes radiating warbling rings, geometric and sharp shapes encircled by ancient runes and scripts, and watercolor dabbled, lumpen shapes that seem to swim even when properly etched into the physical. These must be where the power is drawn, but how do simple sigils have power, let alone cause mental strain? This is a question none can bear the answer to, lest you join the order as well.

Expanded Spell List

The Pattern has given you facility with an expanded list of spells. The following spells are added to the Departed spell list for you.

Spell Level	Spells
1st	Silvery Barbs, Tasha's Hideous Laughter
2nd	Blur, Phantasmal Force
3rd	Enemies Abound, Hypnotic Pattern
4th	Confusion, Phantasmal Killer
5th	Synaptic Static, Mislead

Bleed the Pattern

At 3rd level, the unraveling of your form is accompanied by the release of the pattern. When you make a Constitution saving throw in association with your beyond death’s door ability, the creature that dealt the damage that caused the saving throw takes an amount of psychic damage equal to half your entropy dice and that creature gains a stack of madness. If you take damage from a creature that would cause you to fail the Constitution saving throw associated with your beyond death's door ability, that creature takes an amount of psychic damage equal to your entropy dice, and gains two stacks of madness.

Stacks of Madness and the Maddened Condition

The abilities of the Mad Pattern inflict madness and make use of a class-specific condition called maddened. A creature can only have a maximum of four stacks of madness, after which their stacks are reduced to zero, and they are considered maddened. When a creature is maddened, their armor class is reduced by 2, they make Intelligence rolls with disadvantage, and you roll a d6 at the start of the creature's turn to determine its behavior; the table that determines this behavior is below. If the creature has an action to use, it may expend it to attempt a Wisdom saving throw in order to end the maddened condition, and it may attempt a Wisdom saving throw at the end of its turn.

d6	Behavior
1	The creature can act and move normally.
2	The creature is overcome with an intense despair and casts it all aside. The creature makes a melee attack against itself, which you may add your entropy dice to the damage roll of.
3	The creature sees nothing but the pattern all around it and strikes randomly. The creature makes a melee attack against a randomly determined creature within its melee range. If there are no creatures within melee range for it to attack it moves towards the closest one, expending their action to dash if it is required to get there.
4	The creature sees what it shouldn’t and is pushed to the brink. Roll a d4; if it is 1-2, the creature moves towards you and if it's 3-4 it moves away from you. It will expend its action to dash if it will move it closer or farther to you.
5	The creature becomes stricken with a brief and unignorable emotional turmoil. The creature becomes prone and expends its action and bonus action rocking back and forth inconsolably.
6	The creature is filled with a strange and inappropriate glee. The creature is content with the world around it and considered incapacitated. The creature expends its action reflecting on how great they feel.

Mental Strain

Additionally at 3rd level, your entropy dice deals psychic damage. The damage dealt by your entropy dice is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

Break the Mind

At 6th level, you cause momentary flashes of the pattern to appear within a creature's view, briefly driving them to madness. As an action, you choose a creature you can see within 30 feet of you; that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they have disadvantage on any attack rolls made against creatures other than you and have advantage on attack rolls made against you; the creature also cannot move more than 15 feet away from you. If they succeed the save, nothing happens. At the end of each of the creatures turns they may reattempt the saving throw, and if they succeed the effect ends. If the creature chooses not to attack you on its turn, it gains one stack of madness. You can use this ability an amount of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, after which you must complete a long rest in order to do so.

Madness Abound

At 12th level, you instill a feeling of deep frustration, agitation and a primal need to act impulsively. By expending an action, all creatures within 80 feet of you that can hear you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they take 5d8 psychic damage and accrue three stacks of madness. If any creatures fail the saving throw by an amount equal to or less than half the DC for the saving throw, they instead gain four stacks of madness.

Additionally, as a bonus action, or a reaction to a creature gaining four stacks of madness, you may end a creature's madness condition. Doing so deals 3d8 psychic damage to the creature and forcibly moves the creature 30 feet closer to you.

Invoke the Pattern

At 18th level, you call upon the warbling, simmering madness inside you and call for the pattern. Choose a point within 60 feet of you; all creatures within 15 feet of that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. If they fail, they are pushed backwards 15 feet and take 2d8 psychic damage (this dealing of damage does not add your entropy dice). If they succeed, they are pushed backwards 15 feet but take no psychic damage.

On the point you chose, the Mad Pattern is summoned. The look of the Mad Pattern is at your disposal; it may be a massive, wavering eye filled with burning hatred that radiates warbling rings of psionic energy, a totally incomprehensible series of symbols and runes, or some screaming mass of inconsolable insanity. The Mad Pattern possesses your Initiative in combat, but takes it's turn immediately after yours. The Mad Pattern does not have a creature type, ability scores, an armor class, or hit points, it cannot be targeted by attack rolls and it is not considered a creature. On its turn, it can move 15 feet, take an action, and take a reaction. It is physically and mentally taxing to manifest the Mad Pattern into the Material Plane; at the end of every round, you must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 16 in order to keep the Mad Pattern manifested. After a round ends, the DC increases by two. Additionally, if you are reduced to, or below, zero hit points or rendered Unconscious, the Pattern disapparates. During its turn you choose what it does. Its actions and reactions, as well as its passive abilities, are listed below.

Passive Abilities

• Psionic Fallout. The ground is considered difficult terrain within a 15 foot radius of the Pattern and any creatures that end their turn within that radius take an amount of psychic damage equal to your entropy dice.
• All-Seeing. The Pattern let's nothing evade its sight. The Pattern can see any invisible creatures or objects as if they were not invisible and has a Blindsight of 60 feet.
• Visage of Pain. To the uninitiated, simply viewing the Pattern is undeniably lethal. Any creature other than you that ends their turn and can see the Pattern must make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they accrue one stack of madness and take 2d6 psychic damage (do not add your entropy dice to this damage) for every stack of madness they possess.

Actions

• Abhorrence. A screaming beam burning with pure hatred and malice bursts from the Mad Pattern. All creatures within a 10 foot wide, 60 foot long rectangle must make a Dexterity saving throw. If they fail, they take 10d4 force damage (do not add your entropy dice to this damage) and half of that damage at the beginning of their next turn.
• Screaming, it Speaks. Deep, rumbling tones seep from the Mad Pattern, causing something to burst from underneath the surface. All creatures within a 30 foot radius of the Pattern must make a Wisdom saving throw; if they fail they take 8d8 psychic damage (do not add your entropy dice to this damage) and two stacks of madness. If they succeed, they take half damage and accrue no madness. Creatures who attempt the saving throw must subtract their amount of stacks of madness from their rolls.

Reactions

• Warp Perception (Recharge 3). When a creature within 30 feet of you or 60 feet of the Pattern makes an attack roll against a creature, you may expend the Mad Pattern's reaction to force that creature to make a Wisdom saving throw. If they succeed, nothing happens. If they fail, you may choose a different creature for the creature to target with its attack roll. The different creature must be in the appropriate range for the attack (for example, if it's a melee attack the different creature must be in melee range). If the Pattern can see the different creature, but the creature who failed the saving throw can't, the attack roll is treated as if the different creature is visible to the creature who failed the saving throw.

Power of the Ancient Chant

There are in every group of necromantic orders those who follow the path of least resistance, those who adhere to tradition and follow the advice of those who have already done what you have yet to do. The Order of the Ancient Chant are these people. Ancient forms of necromancy involved a summoning of the dead, but not to a magnitude that most imagine now. Ancient shamans who humbly beseech their rotting ancestors or the spirits of the land would merely summon ghosts and visions of those gone for guidance and advice. The Order of the Ancient Chant believes this is a most commendable strategy. They see necromancy as a way to respect and learn from the dead; a way for them to gain power by a closeness to death but not necessarily with the use of excessive pain and hardship. Agony and strife are the tools of the ordinary departed, but clever lines of questioning and careful, modest ritual are the bread and butter of those that belong to the Ancient Chant.

Expanded Spell List

Your interactions with the dead have given you access to an expanded list of spells. The following spells are added to the departed spell list for you.

Spell Level	Spells
1st	Guiding Hand (UA), Hunter's Mark
2nd	Augury, Fortune's Favor
3rd	Clairvoyance, Tongues
4th	Spirit of Death (UA), Divination
5th	Commune, Contact Other Plane

Advice from the Dead

At 3rd level, you've learned to summon the dead in times of need. When you grow closer to the realm of spirits, a flash of a forlorn spirit will give you momentary guidance; when your beyond death’s door ability activates, and each time you make a Constitution saving throw in association with your beyond death’s door, you may choose one of the following abilities to activate:

Foretell the Events to Come

The spirit tells you of the future, and the things that will cause it. You may reroll any d20 roll you make until the start of your next turn.

Unearth Hidden Knowledge

The spirit tells you of things only the dead could know. You may add a d4 to any rolls you make for the next minute.

Reanimate

The spirit uses its control over the afterlife to give you one last chance. If you were to be reduced to, or below, zero hit points in the next minute, you instead are reduced to one hit point and gain an amount of temporary hit points equal to a roll of the entropy dice you would have access to at your 10 hit point threshold. You can choose this ability once.

Gnashing Teeth

The spirit empowers you with the souls of those gone. You gain two additional entropy dice you may add to your entropy dice rolls for the next minute. You can choose this ability once.

Conduit for the Lost

Additionally at 3rd level, your entropy dice deals force or necrotic damage. The damage dealt by your entropy dice is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

Dead Stratagem

At 6th level, in times of strife and struggle, the dead lend you their knowledge to give you a decision they did not have. When combat begins, time slows and spirits appear to better guide you. When you roll for initiative, you may expend your reaction to choose one of the options below:

Hurt

The dead throng around the weakest link, preemptively pulling them to the grave. Choose one creature you can see with 300 feet of you; you and any creatures not hostile to you that are within 30 feet of you make attack rolls against the creature with advantage, and you and any of those non hostile creatures may add two additional dice of damage to any damage rolls made against the creature. The additional damage dice is equal to your entropy die.

Help

The dead strengthen and push along the efforts of those alive in the hopes they won't join them soon. Choose one creature you can see within 300 feet of you; that creature gains a bonus equal to your entropy die. That creature, at any point before combat ends, can add a roll of that entropy die to any roll they make. After they've done this three times, the bonus is expended.

Hinder

The dead fill the air and ground, clawing and scraping at both the body and mind. Choose a point you can see within 300 feet of you; in a 60 foot radius of that point, the dead rise from the ground in a congealed heap, screaming and wailing. That 60 foot radius is considered difficult terrain to everyone other than you and those not hostile to you. Any creature that ends or begins their turn in the radius must make a Dexterity saving throw; if they fail, they take 3d8 necrotic damage and they are grappled. If they succeed, they take half damage and are not grappled. If you create the 60 foot radius within the spaces of another creature or creatures, they make their first Dexterity saving throw against the radius with disadvantage. The radius lasts for 1 minute, after which the dead fall back beneath the ground and disappear.

Inform

Important information is gathered as the whispers and throaty wails of the dead fill the mind. Choose one creature you can see within 300 feet of you; you learn the damage vulnerabilities, damage resistances, damage immunities, condition vulnerabilities, and condition immunities of that creature.

Beseech Those Gone

At 12th level, the hushed, gruff, or deranged whispers of the dead reach out to you merely by being near them. Whenever you move within 10 feet of a corpse or a pile of bones, you may use your action to make a Wisdom check to attempt to connect with the dead. This corpse or collection of bones must have, at one point, been a creature with an Intelligence score equal to or higher than 8, it must have spoken at least one language you know, and it must either still have a mouth or some means of producing telligle sound (lungs, the larynx, vocal chords, a tongue, etc.). This Wisdom check is made against a DC the DM provides; this DC is determined by the DM and can be set by how willing the spirit is to communicate, if the spirit is capable of communicating, or if the spirit is particularly difficult to reach out to. Regardless of the DM’s choice, the DM sets the DC. If your Wisdom check succeeds the DC, you successfully forge a connection between you and the spirit; its head and method of communication unnaturally spring into a terrible mockery of life, eager, too eager, to speak. For the next 10 minutes, any creature may normally converse with this spirit. After the 10 minutes have passed, the corpse or remains’ head and communication collapses back into inactivity. You may expend another usage of this ability as the 10 minutes expire in order to maintain it for another 10 minutes.

You can use this ability an amount of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, after which you must complete a Short Rest in order to do so again.

Wisdom of Ages

At 18th level, when you reach beyond the barrier and finally meet the place beyond, you return with a wisdom few, if any, will ever receive or understand. Each time you return to life through your die to live again ability, you gain new proficiencies. The proficiencies you gain may be in any skill, weapon, or armor, you are not proficient in. The first time you return to life through your die to live again ability, you gain four new proficiencies; the second time you gain three, the third time you gain two, and the fourth time, and every time after that, you gain one additional proficiency.

Additionally, sometimes your journeys into the world beyond grants you a piece of truly remarkable otherworldly wisdom. Each time you return to life through your die to live again feature, roll percentile dice. If you roll a number equal to or lower than your departed level, you gain one additional boon of the dead.

Boons of the Dead

Vigor of the Dead

Add a single roll of one of your Entropy Dice to your Maximum Hit Points. If the die lands on a one or two, you may reroll it. You can choose this Boon four times, after which you cannot choose it anymore.

Haste of the Dead

Gain a permanent increase to speed equal to five feet. You can choose this Boon three times, after which you cannot choose it anymore.

Hatred of the Dead

You can deal a new type of damage with your entropy dice, Poison, Force, Necrotic, Psychic, Cold, or Thunder. You can choose this boon four times, after which it cannot be chosen again.

Departed Spell List

You know all of the spells on the basic Departed spell list and additional spells based on your subclass.

Cantrips

Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Chill Touch, Dancing Lights, Decompose, Eldritch Blast, Green-Flame Blade, Infestation, Light, Lightning Lure, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Sapping Sting, Sword Burst, Thaumaturgy, Toll the Dead, True Strike

1st Level

Absorb Elements, Alarm, Armor of Agathys, Arms of Hadar, Bane, Cause Fear, Command, Compelled Duel, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, False Life, Fog Cloud, Identify, Illusory Script, Inflict Wounds, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil and Good, Puppet, Ray of Sickness, Shield, Silent Image, Sleep, Hellish Rebuke, Hex, Tenser's Floating Disk, Unseen Servant, Witch Bolt

2nd Level

Arcane Lock, Blindness/Deafness, Borrowed Knowledge, Cloud of Daggers, Crown of Daggers, Darkness, Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Enthrall, Hold Person, Invisibility, Knock, Magic Mouth, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Protection from Poison, See Invisibility, Shadow Blade, Silence, Spider Climb, Levitate, Locate Object, Wither and Bloom

3rd Level

Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Blink, Catnap, Clairvoyance, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fear, Feign Death, Fly, Glyph of Warding, Haste, Hunger of Hadar, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Lifer Transference, Magic Circle, Major Image, Meld into Stone, Melf's Minute Meteors, Nondetection, Sending, Slow, Speak with Dead, Spirit Guardians, Spirit Shroud, Summon Undead, Tongues, Vampiric Touch

4th Level

Arcane Eye, Banishment, Blight, Dimension Door, Evard's Black Tentacles, Fabricate, Greater Invisibility, Locate Creature, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Polymorph, Shadow of Moil, Sickening Radiance,

5th Level

Antilife Shell, Bigby's Hand, Cloudkill, Dispel Evil and Good, Dominate Person, Enervation, Far Step, Geas, Hold Monster, Legend Lore, Modify Memory, Negative Energy Flood, Raise Dead, Scrying, Skill Empowerment, Telekinesis, Teleportation Circle, Wall of Force

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Departed class, you must meet these prerequisites: Constitution 13 and Wisdom 15

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Departed class, you gain the following proficiencies: Arcana, and Insight

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