The Viral One (5e Subclass)

The Viral Pact

Your pact is with an ancient and mysterious entity known only as the Viral One, a being whose powers revolve around the manipulation of viruses and mutations. In exchange for your service, you gain the ability to channel viral strains that alter your body and the world around you. You can inject yourself with viral mutations, granting powerful benefits at a cost. You also can spread these viral effects to others, helping them or hindering them as you see fit.

Potential Patrons

Patron	Alignment	Domains	Description
Agethle	Chaotic Neutral	Death	Agethle embodies the transformative power of death, where decay brings about unexpected new forms of existence.
Azathoth	Chaotic Evil	Death, Tempest	A being of cosmic chaos, Azathoth spreads uncontrollable destruction and disorder, like a virulent storm.
Dolor	Neutral Evil	War, Death	Patron of suffering and unending torment, Dolor thrives where despair and affliction spread like wildfire.
Egan-Shiloga'Troh	Neutral Evil	Life	A paradoxical deity of life through infection, spreading vitality to hosts at the cost of their individuality.
Mirad	Neutral Evil	Death, Disease, Trickery	A cunning manipulator and harbinger of plagues, Mirad revels in deception and the quiet devastation of illness.
Nurgle	Chaotic Neutral	Death, Disease, Entropy	The lord of rot and entropy, Nurgle sees beauty in decay and the natural spread of contagion across all life.
Satasha	Chaotic Evil	Death	A cruel force of inevitable endings, Satasha seeks to extinguish life and spread chaos through viral destruction.
Taro	Neutral Evil	Corruption, Decay	Taro epitomizes the creeping, insidious effects of corruption and decay, leaving ruin in their wake.
The Great Eye	Chaotic Neutral	Death, Knowledge	An all-seeing force, The Great Eye manipulates knowledge of death and decay to spread its infectious will.
The Un-Maker	Chaotic Evil	Death	A destructive force of pure annihilation, The Un-Maker spreads entropy and chaos with the touch of a plague.

Expanded Spell List

The Viral Pact grants you access to a series of unique and twisted spells that allow you to harness the power of viruses, mutations, and contagions. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you:

Expanded Spell List

Spell Level	Spells
1st Level	Fog Cloud, Inflict Wounds
2nd Level	Enhance Ability, Protection from Poison
3rd Level	Stinking Cloud, Bestow Curse
4th Level	Death Ward, Blight
5th Level	Cloudkill, Contagion

Viral Mutations

At 1st level, your body has adapted to house various viral mutations, granting you strange new abilities. You can inject yourself with one of the following viral strains, each with a distinct benefit and penalty. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses after finishing a long rest, or one use after a short rest.

Viral Variant Effects

Viral Variant	Benefit	Penalty
Ironskin Variant	Gain +3 bonus to AC (cannot wear heavy armor)	Speed reduced by 15 feet
Nightsight Variant	Darkvision out to 120 feet. Advantage on Perception and Investigation checks relying on sight.	Considered blinded in bright light
Fastride Variant	Increase speed by 30 feet	Disadvantage on weapon attack rolls
Brutebasher Variant	Advantage on Strength-based checks, saving throws, and attack rolls. Constitution modifier replaces Strength for these checks.	Disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws

Acquiring Doses

Acquiring Doses You gain a number of viral doses equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). These doses represent a fragment of your patron's power, granted as part of your pact. You replenish all expended doses after a long rest, and you may restore one dose after a short rest.

Restoring Doses Outside of Rest In addition to short and long rests, doses can also be restored through specific actions or rituals, adding flexibility and thematic flavor to gameplay:

• Harvesting from Defeated Creatures:

You can extract essence from the remains of creatures slain within the last hour. Doing so requires 1 minute of uninterrupted focus and restores one dose. The DM may limit this to creatures of a certain type (e.g., beasts, aberrations, or fiends) or require special tools.

• Performing Rituals:

Through a 10-minute ritual using calligraphy tools, alchemical ingredients, or a ritual focus, you can synthesize a new dose. The ingredients are worth 5gp and consumed during the process.

• Magical Conversion:

You can channel magical energy into a dose. As an action, you may expend a spell slot to regain a dose, with the slot level determining the number of doses restored (e.g., 1st level = 1 dose, 2nd level = 2 doses).

• Finding Rare Strains or Materials:

Your patron may direct you to discover rare strains, ingredients, or ancient relics. These can be used to craft doses, typically through unique quests or challenges designed by the DM.

• Purcashing or trading for raw material:

You can design several types of shops or NPCs where viral doses could be purchased or traded. These locations can be found in various types of settlements, depending on the tone of your campaign (e.g., dark, mysterious, or apocalyptic). Here are a few options for shops or vendors where characters could acquire doses:

Shop Types for Viral Doses

Shop Type	Description	Price Range	Flavored NPCs
Alchemical Apothecaries	Specialized in potions and elixirs.	5-50 gp per dose	Alchemists, rogue scientists, plague doctors
Flesh Merchants / Black Market	Dealing in exotic or illegal substances.	10-100 gp per dose	Rogues, outcasts, black market traders
Patron Cultists / Secret Societies	Hidden factions or cults.	10-50 gp per dose, or favors	Cult leaders, conspirators, mystical sages
Mutation Shops / Specialists	Specializing in mutations and enhancements.	15-30 gp per dose	Mutants, biological engineers, transformation experts
Plague Doctor / Healer’s Guild	Healing and medicinal substances.	10-40 gp per dose	Healers, doctors, plague specialists
Arcane Laboratories / Institutes	Experimental magical research.	15-50 gp per dose	Wizards, researchers, forbidden magicians
Graveyards / Crypt Keepers	Harvested from remains or cursed areas.	10-25 gp per dose	Necromancers, grave tenders, death scholars
Rogue Wizards / Sorcerers	Magic users tied to dark arts or patron.	20-40 gp per dose	Sorcerers, rogue mages, eccentrics

Breath of the Viral Mist

At 6th level, you learn to exhale the viral mutations into a cloud of contagious fumes. As an action, choose one of your viral variants and exhale it in a 10-foot radius around you. All allies within the radius gain the benefits of the chosen viral strain for 1 minute or until they die. You may use this feature once per long rest.

Overdose

At 10th level, you can push your viral mutations to their extreme limits, risking dangerous side effects. You may expend two uses of Viral Mutations to inject yourself with a number of viral variants equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). After the effects end, you gain 1 level of exhaustion and disadvantage on saving throws against Viral Mutations until you finish a long rest.

Additionally, you gain access to the Quickfix Variant:

• Quickfix Variant: Gain hit points equal to twice your Warlock level. You regenerate 5 hit points at the start of each turn for 1 minute. You can regrow lost limbs and limbs that are severed during this time, but you cannot spend hit dice to heal during the next short rest or regain hit points from any other source.

Instant Injection

Starting at 14th level, when targeted by a harmful spell or attack, you can expend one use of **Viral Mutations** to inject yourself or an ally with a viral variant as a reaction. This grants the target the effects of the chosen viral variant for 1 round. The target does not suffer any penalties from the viral strain, but the effects last until the end of your next turn.

You may use this feature once per short or long rest.

Flavor Enhancements

To further immerse players in the theme of the Viral Pact, consider adding cosmetic effects to the mutations. For example, the Warlock could gain visible, physical changes like glowing veins, patches of mutated skin, or odd physical traits as the mutations take hold. This could also provide roleplay hooks, with NPCs reacting to the Warlock’s unusual appearance or powers.

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