Warlock: The Fable (Patreon)

There is nothing more powerful than a story. Stories can inspire greatness, frighten warriors into inaction, and even cause unmatched destruction. They are passed down, evolve over time, growing stronger and stronger as they spread. Stories are alive, some more than others.

Sometimes a story becomes so powerful that it breaches the veil between fact and fiction. Manifesting in our own world, they become local legends, growing in power as their stories are spread. You have pledged yourself to such an entity, whether through a chance meeting in the dreamscape or by tapping into the tale’s inherent power, allowing it to creep into reality. 

Patrons of The Fable may be well-known legends or dreamt up by the individuals that act as their warlocks. Entities of this type include The Big Bad Wolf, The Haunting of the House on the Hill, The Witch of the Woods, or The Crooked Man, as well as any such cryptid or legend.

Expanded Spell List

1st-level Fable feature

The Fable lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Fable Expanded Spells

1st: Sleep, Silent Image

2nd: Blur, Phantasmal Force

3rd: Blink, Tiny Servant

4th: Fabricate, Polymorph

5th: Mislead, Seeming

Archetype

1st-level Fable feature

You can call forth an aspect of your patron from beyond the veil of fiction. This Archetype may first appear blurry and unclear, coalescing into a more defined shape as you, and by extension it, grows in power through the spreading of its story. When you choose this Otherworldly Patron, select one Archetype listed below to embody it. You can change the chosen Archetype whenever you finish a long rest, shifting its form in your mind.

You can use a bonus action to call your patron’s Archetype into existence in an unoccupied space you can see within 15 feet of you. It takes its turn directly after you during which you control its actions. The Archetype remains until 1 minute has passed, it is reduced to 0 hit points, or you summon the archetype again. When you reach 10th level in this class, the Archetype instead remains for 10 minutes. 

You can summon your patron’s Archetype this way a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus before finishing a long rest.

Archetype: The Beast

Medium Beast or Monstrosity (your choice)

Armor Class 14 + PB (natural armor)

Hit Points 5 + five times your warlock level (the archetype has a number of Hit Dice [d10s] equal to your warlock level)

Speed 40 ft.

STR 15 (+2) DEX 16  (+3)    CON 12 (+1)    INT 8 (-1)    WIS 10 (+0)    CHA (Your CHA)

Senses Passive Perception 10

Languages -

Challenge — Proficiency Bonus (PB) equals your bonus

Keen Hearing and Smell. The beast has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Pack Tactics. The beast has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the beast's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Actions

Multiattack. The beast makes two bite attacks when you reach 6th level. When you reach 10th level, it makes 3 bite attacks.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 plus PB piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 10 + PB Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Archetype: The Spirit

Medium Undead or Elemental (your choice)

Armor Class 14 + PB (natural armor)

Hit Points 4 + four times your warlock level (the archetype has a number of Hit Dice [d10s] equal to your warlock level)

Speed 0 ft., 40 ft. fly (hover)

STR 8 (-1) DEX 16  (+3)    CON 10 (+0)    INT 15 (+2)    WIS 14 (+2)    CHA (Your CHA)

Senses Passive Perception 12

Languages -

Challenge — Proficiency Bonus (PB) equals your bonus

Incorporeal Movement. The spirit can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Actions

Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 plus PB necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 10 + PB Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the creature finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. The damage increases by 1d6 at 6th and 10th level.

Archetype: The Other

Medium Fey or Aberration (your choice)

Armor Class 12 + PB (natural armor)

Hit Points 4 + four times your warlock level (the archetype has a number of Hit Dice [d10s] equal to your warlock level)

Speed 30 ft.

STR 8 (-1) DEX 14  (+2)    CON 10 (+0)    INT 15 (+2)    WIS 16 (+3)    CHA (Your CHA)

Senses Passive Perception 13

Languages -

Challenge — Proficiency Bonus (PB) equals your bonus

Spellcasting. The other can cast any warlock cantrip you know, using your Spell Attack Bonus and Spell Save DC.

Actions

Grab. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 plus PB bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 10 + PB Strength saving throw or be grappled. The other can grapple one creature at a time. 

Bonus Actions

Abducting Teleport (When you reach 6th level). The other casts Misty Step. When it casts Misty Step this way, it can teleport one willing or grappled creature along with it. When you reach 10th level, it can teleport with two such creatures.

Cryptic Form

1st-level Fable feature

Rumors of your patron’s strange form spread, changing it beyond its simple archetype. You have a number of Story Points equal to your proficiency bonus. During a long rest you can choose traits from the Cryptic Form Traits below, spending the appropriate number of points to change the image of your patron in your mind. Traits cannot be chosen more than once during each long rest. Whenever you summon your patron’s Archetype, it has the chosen traits. Any spells it casts or DCs the abilities require use your Spell Save DC and any spell attacks use your spell attack bonus. When you reach 10th level in this class, you instead have a number of Story Points equal to twice your proficiency bonus.

Cryptic Form Traits:

Vicious (2 points) - this creature’s unarmed strikes or natural weapons deal an additional 1d6 slashing damage and use their Charisma instead of Strength.

Big Bad (2 points) - this creature’s size increases by 1 category.

Indomitable (1-3 points) - this creature’s AC increases by the number of points spent.

Howling (2 points) - this creature can cast Thunderwave at will or using its own spell slots.

Elusive (1 points) - this creature has advantage on Stealth checks and can Hide as a bonus action.

Shifty (2 points) - this creature can cast Misty Step without expending a spell slot a number of times equal to its proficiency bonus before finishing a long rest.

Lanky (2 points) - when this creature makes a melee attack on its turn its range is increased by 5 feet. 

Snatching (1 point) - this creature has advantage on checks to begin and maintain a grapple.

Flying (3 points) - this creature gains a flying speed equal to its walking speed.

Telekinetic (3 points) - this creature can cast Catapult at will or using its own spell slots.

Occult (2 points) - this creature can cast Bestow Curse once without expending a spell slot before finishing a long rest. It can be cast additional times by expending an appropriate spell slot.

Fetid (2 points) - the first time this creature deals damage to another creature on its turn, that creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature is poisoned for 1 minute.

Beguiling (3 points) - this creature can cast Charm Monster once without expending a spell slot before finishing a long rest. It can be cast additional times by expending an appropriate spell slot.

Resilient (3 points) - this creature has resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Silvered.

Shared Story

6th level Fable feature

Your connection to your fable has grown, allowing you to tap into its story and share its power. You can use a bonus action to expend a use of your Archetype feature or a warlock spell slot. Instead of manifesting an Archetype of your fable, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Warlock level and you receive the traits granted by the Cryptic Form Feature. These temporary hit points and traits remain for 1 minute, extending to 10 minutes when you reach 10th level in this class.

Additionally, you can communicate telepathically with your patron’s Archetype up to 500 feet away and can use your action to see through its eyes and hear through its ears until the start of your next turn, during which you are blind and deaf to your own surroundings. You can cast your Warlock spells as though you were in the Archetype’s space.

Collective Unconscious

10th-level Fable feature

You learn the Dream spell. It counts as a warlock spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of spells you know. You can also cast it once without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Alternatively you can expend a use of your Mystic Arcanum to cast this spell.

Whenever you cast this spell, you can alter its effects in one of the following ways: 

• If you choose for the messenger to appear monstrous to the target, your patron appears instead. When the target wakes up it must roll on the long-term madness table.

• You may choose an additional willing creature to be a messenger for the spell.

• If you are the messenger, you can choose to end the spell early while the target remains unconscious. If you do and the target is on the same plane of existence as you, you teleport to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of it.

Stranger Than Fiction

14th-level Fable feature

Your story and your patron’s have become one. When summoning your patron’s Archetype or as a bonus action when you are within 5 feet of it, you can choose to merge with the now physical form of your patron. Transforming this way uses the same rules as the Druid’s Wild Shape feature except for the following changes:

• Your hit points match those of the Archetype at the time you merged with it.

• You can cast spells and speak.

• You retain any special senses you would have in your normal form. 

• You gain temporary hit points equal to twice your warlock level.

• When you merge you may have the Archetype grow 1 size category larger if there is room to do so. 

You can remain merged with the Archetype this way for a number of hours equal to your proficiency bonus, until you use a bonus action to revert to your original forms, or the archetype is reduced to 0 hit points. If the duration of your Archetype has not expired when you do so, it appears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you. 

Once you have used this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.

Eldritch Invocations

Fact or Fiction. You have studied how to weave the intricacies of reality into your illusions to make them more lifelike. Creatures have disadvantage on saving throws and checks to resist or discern the nature of Illusion spells you cast.

Psychosomatic. Your illusions have become so lifelike that you can trick the minds of others into believing they have been harmed by them. You can use an action to target a creature within 5 feet of an illusion under your control, making a melee spell attack against that creature. On a hit the creature takes 1d6 psychic damage and you may have the creature reroll its original saving throw or check to discern its nature as an illusion, regardless if it has previously succeeded in doing so. This damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).