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Psychomancer: A New Wizard Subclass by DM Conclave (@Alex_Tiliakos)
"Delvers in the art of psychomancy deal in matters of the soul and are able to twist, recreate, use, or even abuse the energy of living beings that possess a soul to their liking.
They are able to manipulate the mysterious energies that comprise the core of other creatures’ entire being, including their own, and they can decide whether to use it for good or evil. Through long-forgotten practices and highly complex rituals, hidden carefully in the sands of time, they are able to utilize those energies of the psyche to even restore a living soul back to its owner, or use it to fuel their unfathomable magic and create chaos and eternal suffering."
This truly is a novel, well thought out and expertly applied new school of magic with all manner of flavourful, fun and freaking funky cool abilities, which are beautifully grounded in its own lore and backstory. It truly is rare to see something so fascinating, and so brilliantly realised.
I'm seriously in love with all of this and wish more archetypes were presented with such care and creativeness. I need to make a Psychomancer right now!
The Psychomancer is presented with an entire rich history, complete with dates and deep grounding within Forgotten Realms lore, is provided beginning with a "Netherese archwizard named Faranda Shadowspeak, on the flying enclave of Maunator, also known as Sunrest, was openly in favor of not limiting magical studies [of the psyche/ soul]" who met a rather cataclysmic end, but before her teachings had been shared.
Psychomancy studies the soul that animates living and manipulating it to wondrous and terrible ends, making them much sought after by the fiends of the Hells and Abyss.
Unsurprisingly, the practice is forbidden and these wizards are rare, taking to a life of adventure to discover hidden lore, obtain rare components and fund their wild experiments
Psychomancy Savant
Due to the rarity of psychomancy spells they actually cost more in time and gold to copy into your Spellbook, but this feature does come with an awesome narrative bonus to searching out and discovering new psychomancy spells and lore. Together these definitely give the new spells narrative weight (as well as the wait).
Soul Sense
This rather neat feature allows the Psychomancer to open their senses to the souls around them, granting limited blindsight and the ability to become attuned to the spirits of their allies, being able to locate them without any mundane senses.
Soulcloak
This is a glorious and truly horrifying ability, that conjures a cloud of darkness around the Psychomancer, described as "filled with distorted faces that whisper, moan or laugh, a sight which fills your enemies with dread" which is all sorts of creepy cool! This also bolsters the wizard and gives them the ability to use an action to scare an enemy with this cloak of horrors!
Soul Projection
This allows the full Doctor Strange astral projection or "soul-treading" as the Psychomancers call it. Their spirits fly with great speed upon the ethers plane, seeing the world around them in "shades and outlines", though concentration can allow details to be made out. As would be expected, while the soul is away the body hits the hay and is very vulnerable. I can see this being used for some. Very cool and spooky recon.
Soul Reaper
This ominous ability truly shows the dark side of the Psychomancer, as they can rend the very soul from a weak or weakened enemy, instantly killing them and nourishing the wizard. If that wasn't horrific enough, "creatures killed by this ability are never allowed to cross over to the afterlife, except in the case of divine intervention." I think the Psychomancers may be baddies, but it's hard to argue that this isn't a wicked cool thing an anti-hero or straight up villain would do. Makes sense why these studies were/ are so very illegal and carried severe punishment.
Soul Thread
Choosing the Psychomancy school unlocks a shared knowledge that stretches put across planes and settings without explanation. One element of this is the ability to imbue length of silk with at first their own and later the souls of their vanquished foes. Beginning as a focus, the tether shows the state of the wizard's soul and can be charged with souls to imbue their spells with greater potency or cast a specific spell depending on the alignment of the harvested souls.
This is a fascinating aspect of the Psychomancer and comes steeped in lore with a table denoting the relevant ritual components, as the specificity of the rituals needed. This is an extremely powerful item that has its rarities unlocked at various levels, so it is always relevant, and the difficulty, specificity and cost of the various rituals balance this beautifully. This truly is an original and inspired item that will be do much fun to play with, as well as showing the true colours of the wielder's soul!
Psychomancy Spells
Included here are two Cantrips, five 1st level, four 2nd level, three 3rd level, three 4th level, three 5th level, two 6th level, two 7th level, two 8th level and one 9th level spell/s, as well as an optional percentage chance of learning a new psychomancy spell upon gaining a new level. This makes even more out of the difficulty of learning these spells, as well as the inherent dormant knowledge emerging in the Psychomancer's consciousness.
The spell's range from the Psychic Slap cantrip able to do a small amount of damage and causes the target to become frightened for a round on a hit with no save, which certainly seems quite powerful, to the 9th level Eternal, which allows the Psychomancer to transfer their soul into a recently slain body through a complex, involved and expensive ritual process, potentially allowing for eternal life without the distastefulness of becoming a Lich! This is freaking awesome and has such narrative potential! Imagine a cabal of eternal psychomancers from a previous age, staying alive and plotting in the shadows, behind their Soulcloaks. Perfect for one of those bizarre murder mysteries with similar patterns over the years, with long lived elves being the wrong suspects...
Among the variety of other spells there are those for the collecting of souls for is with the Soul Thread, a way to hurl your blood and fury at your enemies as a Psychic Harpoon, way to psychically link with someone as long as they are willing and on the same plane, beseech an angel to soothe another's psyche, use your soul to puppet a corpse, force a body swap that knocks out the pour souls shunted into your body, incapacitate a foe with the terrifying whispers of tormented souls, and an exhausting new option to try to bring back a recently passed soul, among many others.
The use of Nathaniel Roux (@freeners)'s gorgeous template and the spectacular use of predominantly stock art just go to show how professional and pretty it's possible to produce products with a little care and vision, which should seriously inspire folx, especially with many people talking about the prohibitive need for huge art budgets. This is seriously a triumph of using available resources, either free or reasonably priced and ready to be used to look high quality and damn fine.
This truly is a novel, well thought out and expertly applied new school of magic with all manner of flavourful, fun and freaking funky cool abilities, which are beautifully grounded in its own lore and backstory. It truly is rare to see something so fascinating, and so brilliantly realised.
I'm seriously in love with all of this and wish more archetypes were presented with such care and creativeness. I need to make a Psychomancer character right now!
Credits
• Template by Nathanaël Roux (@freeners)
• Design by DM Conclave (@Alex_Tiliakos)
• Story design by DM Quicksilver (@DQwiksilver)
• Layout by DM Satyr
• Editing by DM Alphaea & DM Quicksilver
Artist Credits
• DM's Guild Creator Resources
• Additional Graphics Pack - Sigils and Page Decorators by Barkalot Designs
• Wraiths by Daniel Comerci – danielcomerci.com
• Pixabay
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/294881/Psychomancer?affiliate_id=1507682
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