Child of the Spirits - Sorcerous Origin
Child of the Spirits
Your birth was possibly natural, possibly not, however, one thing was for certain; from that moment, you have never been or felt alone. There are spirits of nature in almost all natural things, from rivers to stones to the trees themselves. Whether you use your connection to these spirits to force them under your will, or find a way to co-exist with them and help each other fulfill your respective needs, most such children's lives are shaped by the knowledge of the world hidden around them, and you have been no different.
Your magic does come from your own internal reserve of energy, but you are not actually the one who converts this energy into an effect on the world. Usually, you will instead give a small portion of your energy to a lesser spirit, who converts the majority of that energy into an effect, and keeps a small portion to itself. Some Spirit Children, however, are known to instead force their will on the spirits around them with their overwhelming presence and energy, however, this approach has a negative impact on the spirits affected by it, which is why most prefer a more civil approach.
Spirit Companion
At your birth, one such spirit was bonded to your soul, and acts as a liaison between yourself and the world around you. This companion functions very much like a familiar, with a flight speed of 30 feet, but with some differences: it cannot be killed, it is invisible to everyone but you, and cannot interact with man-made corporeal objects. It also cannot use the Help action or deliver Touch spells in your place. This companion is not really a familiar, though, and so it does not prevent you from having one.
Natural Connection
You share your power with the spirits of the natural world, rather than casting spells yourself. Starting at 1st level, when your Spellcasting feature lets you learn a sorcerer cantrip or a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, you can choose the new spell from the Druid spell list, in addition to the sorcerer spell list. You must otherwise obey all the restrictions for selecting the spell, and it becomes a sorcerer spell for you.
You also have the ability to notice the presence of spirits. Though you cannot yet clearly see their true forms, you can see vague, unnatural lights which twinkle with colours indicating either their type or mood, you are never sure which.
Natural Empathy
Also at 1st level, your connection to the spirits allows you to pick up on information about the world around you. If you spend an action listening to the spirits, you can find out the following about the current state of the nearby area:
- If there is a major distruption, such as a forest fire or a flood, you get a vague idea of it's nature, and the general direction it is in.
- If there are any supernatural or abnormal effects in the nearby area, such as the those of the Hallow spell or a powerful creature's lair, you know if this effect has a positive or negative impact, and the general direction the affected area is in.
- If there is a major threat to the nearby wildlife, such as a dangerous predator not native to the area, you know this and one fact at your DM's discretion about this danger.
- If there is an opening to the Feywild, or an equivalent realm infused with natural magic, you know this along with a clue about its location.
Spirit Sight
Starting at 6th level, you learn Sylvan (if you did not know it already) and gain the ability to clearly see the spirits of nature and of the dead.
In an area with at least one natural feature, such as a river or plant, you can ask one of the nature spirits in that area a question in Sylvan. Depending on the complexity of the question and its answer, the DM sets the DC that you can roll a Persuasion (Charisma) check against. On a successful check, the spirit will try to answer as truthfully as possible, and may do so by telepathy or showing you visions of its memories, even if it isn't normally capable of such things. It could speak instead, if it is capable of such. On a failed check, the creature may decide your query isn’t worth its time or decide to prank you with misinformation. A successful Insight (Wisdom) check can determine whether the spirit is telling the truth. If you ask any further questions, the spirits will not answer because they will feel like you are trying to use them. If you spend at least part of your next short or long rest making casual conversation with the spirits, you regain the ability to use this feature.
Spirits of the dead will try to avoid you whenever possible, unless some greater desire or force brings them to attack you, or if they are bound to a certain point you happen to be nearby. You have so much living energy flowing around you that it's painful to these spirits, with no body to contain and protect them.
You do not, however, cause them actual damage, only discomfort.
Additionally, because you can now see your Spirit Companion more clearly, it can now use the Help action, but only to help you.
Finally, if your companion is within 5 feet of an enemy that is also no further than 100 away from you, you can use your bonus action to allow it to it become visible for one round, using the help action to benefit any creature also within 100' of that enemy.
Ward of the Spirits
Starting at 10th level, you can call the nearby spirits to swirl around you and protect you. You can expend 4 sorcery points to cast the Magic Circle spell centered on yourself, as an action, without expending any material components. The area of effect of this spell moves to remain centered on you, unless you lock it in place using a bonus action.
One with the Spirits
Starting at 18th level, your soul has become so intertwined with the Feywild that you count as a Fey creature. A small fragment of your soul will always be safely hidden away somewhere within the Feywild. In your current plane, others can tell you're not completely there: perhaps you seem almost translucent, you always have a distant expression, vines grow interwoven with your hair, or something similar.
Also at 18th level, your bond with the spirits is so close that you can alter your request in an emergency. Whenever you cast a cantrip or spell that deals one of the following damage types, you can change the damage to another type on the same list by spending a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder. Changing the damage type of a cantrip costs 1 sorcery point. Additionally, once per turn when you cast a spell of 1st level or higher you can spend all of your movement speed on your turn to take a path to your destination through the feywild instead, teleporting up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see.
Changelog
V1.1
- Edit to Spirit Sight; Made the spirit able to Help their Sorcerer. At level 1, free advantage with no way of killing it is VERY overpowered, but at level 6, and only on an enemy within 10 feet of you, it's probably not too abusable.
- Clarified that the piece of your soul which One with the Spirits moves into the feywild is safe.
- Clarified that there is only one modification to the Banishment spell from One with the Spirits.
V1.2
- Added a once per Short/Long Rest limitation on Spirit Sight's ability to gather information.
V1.3
- Clarified wordings on the Natural Empathy detection, and added an option to detect positive influences too.
- Extended the Spirit Sight's help portion to 30', still too close for comfort for a sorcerer, but distant enough to be useful for most characters.
- Clarified wording the ability for powerful creatures to attempt preventing you from using One with the Spirits
- Adjusted Sorcery Point Costs. Increased One With the Spirits because it can be used as a fairly strong NOPE out card, In return, since it's also Long-Rest recharge, I gave the Ward of the Spirits a lower cost which feels more reasonable.
- Gave One with the Spirits a method of specifying their destination.
V1.4
- Flavour Text Overhaul
- Placeholder images from the Shuumatsu no Izetta anime added
- Removed the opposition check mechanic, to bring it in line with things like Planeshift, which have no canon rules for opposition, which isn't to say such can't be DM-Fiated. Also, for compatibility with published modules, leaving this vague makes it clear that the published module's rule is the specific rule and this ability is just the general one.
V1.5
- Added 1/Short Rest restriction to the Feywild projection ability in order to justify it being free.
V1.6
- Allowed Ward of the Spirits to be used freely, it IS expensive.
- Gave a big buff to their level 6 ability so that it has some combat relevance.
V1.7
- Copied Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else level 18 feature.
Credits
- /u/flordemaga: Helped a TON with the revision to the flavour text at around V1.3, hopefully this is a lot better.
- Art credits & use info on next page.
Art Credits
Image used on the second page, with some minor edits to make it fit within the presentation style of full artworks with backgrounds, as found in the PHB and other homebrews.
The original image was distributed under the Creative Commons license, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Old image links
https://www.gmbinder.com/images/B1kO37E.jpg