Punishment Domain (5e Subclass)

Punishment Domain

You serve your Deity by becoming the new hell to demons and devils. Instead of damning them to hell, you trap their souls within you to be tormented by the hell created inside you – gifted to you by your Deity. From there, you can forcibly extract powers from these Fiends and kill their comrades using their own native power against them. You appear like a warlock, but they don’t control you – you control them. Most Clerics of the Punishment Domain feel for the Tieflings for being disliked for a lineage they didn’t ask for. “You had done intimate actions with mortals to breed a race that’s disliked from your taint alone. You shall be punished for the ones who are forced to carry your burdens on the land. May my god show them the Depravity of Hell from the Cushions of Heaven!”

Punishment Domain Spells
Cleric Level	Spells
1st	shield, arms of hadar
3rd	shadow blade, flock of familiars
5th	summon lesser demons, counterspell
7th	divination, summon greater demon
9th	infernal calling, planar binding

Bonus Proficiencies

These clerics are living reminders that devils and demons can die Source

When you choose this domain at the 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor. You also know the language of Celestial and Infernal, if you don’t know it already.

Primed Cleric Ready for Hell

Starting at 1st level, you physically prime your body to more easily withstand the changes yet to come and the powers yet to be gained. For now, you can use a certain amount of hellish powers only for a moment during a strike. You gain the following benefits:

• While wearing Heavy Armor, you add your Wisdom Modifier to your Constitution Saving Throws (Minimum: 0).
• You learn the Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade cantrip. They are considered Cleric Spells for you, and their effects increase according to your Cleric Level instead of your Character level. They also deal radiant damage instead of their normal damage type.

Moreover, your Cleric spells that summon Fiends are summoned from within you and have the symbol of your deity engraved on their forehead.

Channel Divinity: Inner Hell

At 2nd level, your Deity modified your soul, planting a seed of Celestial Energy inside. You may call upon this energy to receive the rest of the power required to withstand the greater powers of your imprisoned schemers. You can now forcibly siphon power from the trapped schemers and harness their power as your own, driving your prisoners mad that their powers are being used for the greater good.

As a bonus action, you can expend a use of your channel divinity. You can choose to have eyes of which anyone who looks in your eyes can hear the voices of the tormented fiends (you can turn this effect on or off as you please). For 1 hour, you gain the following benefits depending on your Cleric level:

• Level 2+, you learn two Eldritch Invocations from the Warlock Class for the duration. The Invocation cannot have any prerequisites unless it’s only prerequisite is the level of which you use your Cleric level instead of your Warlock level. You can pick different invocations each time you use this feature. Additionally, a halo appears above your head that emits bright light in a 15 feet radius.

• Level 5+, Fiends summoned by your Cleric spells during this time cannot attack nor do things that would harm you or creatures that are friendly to you even after the duration of this feature ends, unless your concentration on that spell is broken. Moreover, you can use your Wisdom modifier, instead of Charisma, for your Charisma ability checks.

• Level 8+,If a Cleric Spell that a Fiend was summoned from ends, except by having your Concentration broken, it is counted as your concentration breaking instead, and if broken this way, the Fiend(s) still cannot attack nor do things that would harm you or creatures that are friendly to you.

• Level 14+, Fiends summoned by your Cleric spells must obey you, even when Concentration is broken.

When you use this feature, you gain the Healing Hands and Celestial Resistance feature of the Aasamir for the duration. When you gain this feature, pick one subrace of Aasamir. You gain all the racial traits of the chosen subrace (excluding ability score increases) and are also considered Aasamir in addition to your race for the duration. If you are already an Aasamir, you must pick a different subrace than the one you are, you can use Healing Hands twice per long rest (instead of once), and you take half damage from radiant and necrotic damage for the duration.

Moreover, you are detected as a Fiend for the purpose of detection magic or abilities like the Paladin’s divine sense while Inner Hell is active and other Fiends will sense the multiple fiend souls within you, but will not know what’s happening to them until they look in your eyes (even if the eye effect is off). You can end this effect early as a bonus action.

Depravity of Hell

At 6th level, you have used the demonic powers of your imprisoned schemers so much that you learned how to deprave a certain amount of demonic power from your Fiends and maintain it as your own without the Aasamir modifications. You gain the following benefits:

• You gain the Hellish Resistance feature of the Tiefling.
• Pick one subrace of Tiefling. You gain all the racial traits of the chosen subrace (excluding ability score increases) and are also considered Tiefling in addition to your race for the duration. If you are already a Tiefling, you take half damage from fire, you must pick a different subrace than the one you are, and if a trait would replace a feature you have (such as the Winged trait replacing Infernal Legacy), it is not replaced.

Additionally, you can ignore restrictions of the Tiefling’s Winged trait and cast Tiefling racial spells using Wisdom. Lastly, you may edit the appearance of the following if you have them:

• Horns: Becomes a Halo that sheds dim light of 10ft.
• Winged: Becomes feathered and you choose the color of the wings
• Skin tone: Can remain as it was prior to this feature

Moreover, at 11th level, you learn the Abyssal language and Summon Fiend is added to your list of domain spells. Like your other domain spells, it is always prepared and counts as cleric spells for you.

Divine Strike

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 radiant, force, or psychic (your choice). When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

The Cushion of Heaven

At 17th level, you become your Deity’s most devoted destroyer of evil and savior of future would’ve-been victims. With depriving your Fiends of their hellish power, you received gifts from the cushions of heaven.

You gain the following benefits:

• You may expend a spell slot to use your Channel Divinity: Inner Hell feature instead of expending a Channel Divinity. The duration of Inner Hell becomes 30 minutes per level of the spell slot used if used by expending a spell slot.
• The Aasamir features and Aasamir subrace features you get from your Inner Hell feature is now permanent.

Moreover, when a fiend you can see or hear would be sent back to their native plane (or be killed while in their native plane), you take its soul inside your own soul instead and you immediately know its name.

Fiends under this effect cannot escape except by the powers of a Deity, Wish Spell, or someone/something of equal or greater power.

Roleplay Tips

Why would they join an adventuring party?

A Cleric of the Punishment Domain does not spend their entire lives just hunting demons. It is advocated within their community to not do that to not run the risk of losing your humanity. Therefore, there is no story reason they would not join a normal adventuring party.

Want to hate Tieflings?

You may choose to have your Cleric dislike Tieflings. The majority of this domain, however, is quite neutral to them and has pity for them due to their infernal birth. Hating Tieflings will cause those of your faith to have slight negative disposition towards you and your companions.

Can I speak to the fiends inside me?

You can roleplay telepathically speaking to the demons and devils inside you. Keep in mind that you do control them, so you can always break the telepathic link for as long as you like. It’s not a mechanical feature because it has no effect on anything worth making it a feature unless DM makes it so.

5.00

(2 votes)

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Character Options → Subclasses