Introductions

This home brew has been a labor of love and spelling errors over the course of the last Four years (circa 2018). I made it because I wanted to and because it was fun. Its not a perfect port. Unlike some other mad men like the guy who made a near perfect homebrew of Sekiro Shadows Die Twice ; I don't have the time or patience to make hundreds of item cards, Creature stat blocks ,and spell descriptions.

This homebrew was meant to be the easiest way to slot dark souls flavor and mechanics into D&D neatly and efficiently. I did it in this way so that it could actually be implemented in D&D games instead of your DM taking one look at it and saying NOPE. (They might still do that though...)

To this end I will be porting some of the most beloved and iconic mechanics of dark souls into D&D (like bonfires, Estus Flasks, Hollowing and BOSS WEAPONS), and mixing them with tried'n'true WOTC approved mechanics to smooth out where neccesary. Also I made some additions that are not in any way Dark souls lore friendly, but are cool as heck. Either way I hope you enjoy it.

Art credits (In order of Appearence)

• Pg 1 Dark souls fan art By Marcel Gieseler .
• Pg 1 Ahmonket Invocations: Daze by Richard Wright .
• Pg 3 Burn from Within by James Ryman .
• Pg 5 Around the bonfire by Inkyh
• Pg 6 Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage by Clint Cearley .
• Pg 6 Anguished Unmaking by Wesley Burt .
• Pg 7 Metamorphic Alteration by Livia Prima .
• Pg 8
• Pg 9 Galvan by Unknown .
• Pg 9 Yvonne by Halycon450 .
• Pg 9 Bakir, Bane of the Lightless by Halycon450 .
• Pg 9 Dark souls Mage by The Requiem Man .
• Pg 9 Dark souls Pyromancer by Halycon450 .
• Pg 9 Royal Sorcerer Navlaan by @knightinshiningundies .
• Pg 10 Dark Souls: Iron Knight Tarkus by karniz .
• Pg 11 Lord's Blade Ciaran by Dedded Burt .
• Pg 12 Cleric By sofimartinez .
• Pg 13 Dark Souls Mage by Halycon450.
• Pg 14 Commission: Vieve By Karniz .
• Pg 15 Dark Souls: Lunaire? By karniz .
• Pg 17 Dark Souls 2 By BarsonYoutube .

The Hollowed

Hollowed are unrelenting opponents in battle, few face them, fewer survive. The souls unfortunate enough to find themselves of this condition, find themselves unable to die. Though this appears a blessing , that sentiment is far from the truth.

Not much is known as to what causes this affliction, (many scholars suspect a curse must be bestowed upon the individual) but all know the unmistakable curse of the Dark Sign, pitty-able are the fools who make an enemy of this undying breed.

Hollowing level

For every death you suffer you gain a point of hollowing. Once you gain a point of hollowing you are considered undead until the curse is reversed, this effect can only be removed in this way.

Once you are considered undead you cant be healed except by your Estus flask , and others cant be healed by estus flask, you cant be revived by spells. For every point above your current level you lose a memory. If you reach 20 points you lose all your memories become a full hollow, you attack any thing that moves & your alignment changes to Chaotic evil. At best you are openly hostile to anything in your range of attack. At worst you try to kill whatever is bothering you with the enthusiasm of a starving zombie.

Full Hollowing can't be reversed by any means except for the use of a Wish spell.

Your DM may implament a sanity system for flavor (Rules in DM's Guide Page 264 - 266 "Honor and Sanity").

Hollowed Class features

Level	Features	Proficiency bonus
1st	Dark Sign, Hollowed Soul Vessel, Chosen Path	+ 2
2nd	Estus Flask	+ 2
3rd	Chosen Path Feature	+ 2
4th	Riposte	+ 2
5th	Chosen Path Feature	+ 3
6th	Ability score improvement	+ 3
7th	Rite Of Kindling	+ 3
8th	Soul Extrusion	+ 3
9th	Ability score improvement	+ 4
10th	Chosen Path Feature	+ 4
11th	Great soul Vessel	+ 4
12th	Ability score improvement	+ 4
13th	Chosen Path Feature	+ 5
14th	Jolly Cooperation	+ 5
15th	Ability score improvement	+ 5
16th	Chosen Path Feature	+ 5
17th	Greater Soul Vessel	+ 6
18th	Ability score improvement	+ 6
19th		+ 6
20th	Chosen Path Feature	+ 6

Features

As a Hollowed, you gain the following features

Hit Points

• Hit Dice: 1d4 per level
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 4
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d4 + your CON mod

Proficiencies

• Saving Throws: CON & WIS saves.
• Skills: You have proficiency on Survival, Concentration & Intimidation checks.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your chosen path:

a) a locket or b) sentimental trinket.

a) a skeleton key or b) 5 flasks of alchemist fire

a) a CR 3 soul or b) a potion of greater healing

Hollowed Soul Vessel

With your soul and body permanently tethered to each other they both suffer from the constant strain as the ricochet apart only to slam back into one another every time you die. When you die you gain a point of hollowing. Over time and through many deaths you find that by passing through the mortal coil so many times, your eyes have gained the ability to observe soul masses. Eventually you try to interact with these floating will 'o whisps and find that you can take them from the astral plane & into your own undying vessel.

Your vessel can hold an infinite number soul masses. Additionally you can now see 10 ft into the astral plane.

When taking souls you may add them to your own soul mass. You must succeed a WIS saving throw against the soul's DC to aquire the soul mass. Depending on your level & the size of your souls, you may infuse them into your own soul and other objects (different restrictions apply to different abilities, effectiveness/ success rate varies with the soul's DC).

Bonfires and Death

When ever a hollow dies by failing 2 or more death saving throws, their body, along with all their possessions disintegrate and reform in the last place they set a functioning bonfire, gain 1 point of hollowing and stabilize at 1 hit point after 1 minute. You can gain an additional point of hollowing to immediately teleport back to your point of death, you can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier per long rest. If a hollow dies and has no functioning bonfire they gain 2 points of hollowing and are teleported to a random location within 10 miles of your point of death.

Soul Path

At 1st level, you will choose a path to shape yourself throughout life, This may be influenced by a part of your past that you remembered or a completely new path. Based on what path you chose, at certain levels you will gain the abilities of your Soul path.

Estus Flask

By 2nd level the bonfire becomes your second home, a warm feeling of belonging so alien in your world. From this bonfire you are able to draw in souls similarly lost like you, and draw their power. By dipping flasks into the bonfire you can harness it into liquid flame; Estus. Estus is essentially bottled fire, burning life and when consumed it heals you. Once per (Short? or) long rest you may dip 5 flasks into your bonfire and receive 5 Estus flasks, which when consumed as an action heal whomever consumes it by 2d4+2.

Riposte

At 4th, If an enemy attacks you, you can use your reaction to make a contesting dexterity check if you win you deftly parry the attack, causing it to miss. If a parried attack misses you, you can attack the assailent as part of the same action.

Rite of Kindling

At level 7, It is likely that you have died more times than you care to recount, you begin to feel alien in your own vessel, forgetting who you once were, but, when sitting around a bonfire you feel at home.

After finishing a short or long rest next to a bonfire created with your create bonfire cantrip, you may spend a number of souls to kindle the bonfire. A kindled bonfire gains features at a rate determined by the caliber of the souls used to kindle it.

When Kindled You may expend souls to your bonfire to give it the properties of a higher soul mass (tiny-Small-Medium-Large-Massive-Gargantuan) and to make it a beacon of rest and reprieve.

Once you kindle a bonfire to a higher strength, all bonfires you have created or create from this point on, share the properties of that Kindled Bonfire. Bonfires of Higher soul mass have all the abilities of lower soul mass Bonfires.

Bonfire Kindling

• Home ward: You may as a ritual cast Home Ward; teleport you and any creatures touching you, to a bonfire kindled with a soul and is within 1000 ft, this requires concentration of 1 minute.
• Hallowed: A bonfire of this soul Mass has a permanenent Hallowed spell centered on it you determine its features. Additionally in gritty realism; while resting next to this bonfire you gain the benefits of a Short rest in 4 hours and a long rest in 24 hours.
• Far Reaching: The range of which you can warp to a bonfire increases to 4000 feet.
• Spontaneous: the following only applies when you cast homeward targeting a bonfire with this Feature. You may cast Home Ward as an action or reaction, this doesn't require concentration & is instantaneous .
• Inter Planar: When targeting this bonfire for teleportation, you may teleport between planes or to any Inter Planar bonfire on the same plane regardless of range.
• Primordial Flame: Only one Bonfire can have this feature. Other bonfires may have the max estus and estus strngth of a gargantuan flame, but there can only be one Primordial Flame. Kindled Bonfires of this soul mass are permanent, cannot be dispelled by any means, save for a Wish spell or an intervening god. The Bonfire has a 120 ft globe of invulnerability around it. Only creatures you specify can enter the globe, any unspecified creature that tries to enter or starts its turn in the globe takes 10d10 psychic & 10d10 radiant damage.

Jolly Co-operation

By 14th level you've no doubt assembled a hoard of souls. With all the souls you store in your vessel you almost feel whole again. It would be perfect if it weren't for their incessant back talk.

As your collection of souls grew, your mental control of them has weakened, spread thin by the vast array of souls, allowing them to communicate their residual thoughts with you....whether you like it or not.

To make peace with these souls you may parlay with them as a ritual lasting 1 hour. During this ritual you retreat into the inner recesses of your soul and are incapacitated and don't respond to & become unaware of outward stimuli for the duration of the ritual. You make a charisma saving throw against the soul's Wis DC every 10 minutes. The number of successes determine the effect . By Parlaying with a soul you help it make peace with its death and befriend it.

Soul Summoning

To summon a parlayed soul into battle as an action;

make a charisma check against the Soul's Wis DC, applying the appropriate modifiers based off of its parley level. On a success you summon the soul from your Vessel and give it form. The soul is allied to you and will act according to the levels of parlay.

Parlay level	level of control
0-1	Wont attack you, but wont follow orders & may attack allies
2-3	Requires an action to order, will follow orders, otherwise will protect itself if attacked
4-5	issuing commands requires a bonus action
6	You may issue commands as a free action your turn, additionally can be summoned a bonus action

You can only have 1 parleyed soul summoned at a time Use Its stats from the Monster Manuel and apply the following:

• It's attacks now does force damage instead of physical, and Psychic instead of elemental damages.
• Halve its Hp and any damage it would deal
• it cannot use legendary reactions or saves
• it cannot induce status effects (not even with spells)
• If it loses all its Hp its soul is destroyed (doesn't return to your vessel)
• The soul returns to your vessel if you dismiss it (as a reaction or bonus action), after 5 minutes or if your Hp reaches zero. A damaged soul that returns to your vessel cant be summoned or bound with again for 24 hours.
• How the summoned soul uses its turn is up to you, you could directly control it during its turn or let the DM control it.

Soul Path of the Warrior

The curse of hollowing is a horrifying fate to others, faced with the prospect of slowly losing their minds, many give up. You face this curse, the way you faced any challenge; you stand your ground and fight through to the end.

Warrior's prowess

At level 1 you gain a fighting style, an action surge (Max 1), and proficiency in medium, heavy armor and shields & with versatile, and two handed weapons. Additionally you can make an action surge at the cost of 1 level of exuastion. Lastly you gain the powerful build trait.

Warrior's Armament

At 3rd level, you learn to use your particular armament to your advantage in battle. If you hit a large or smaller sized creature while two-handing a weapon with the two handed or the Versatile Properties it must succeed a strength a saving throw against your Strength DC (8 + Prof + STR Mod) or be knocked 10 feet away & is knocked prone.

Your Poise in battle becomes unshakable; if you are wearing heavy armor and you are hit by a (non-critical) melee attack, you can make a (Melee) attack against the target as a reaction.

Warrior's Assault

At 5th level if you take an attack action (on your turn) you may make a second attack as part of the same action. You gain an additional fighting style (you cant take the same one twice).

Lastly your melee range increases by 5 ft

Unbreakable Stance

By level 10 your battle stance is beyond compare, most enemies find you to be an immovable force. When rolling for poise you have advantage.

Additionally you cant be knocked prone or moved by non magical effects, and you become immune to the Grappled and prone conditions.

Warrior's Endurance

At 13th level you learn how to prolong your combat endurance by using souls. When you use the attack action you may attack 3 times instead of 2, and your max number of action surges increases by 1 (Max 2).

As a free action you can spend souls to create an action surge. You cannot create more than 1 action surge per round, and you cant use the created action surge until your next turn. To do this you must expend either: 5 tiny souls, 3 small souls or 1 medium soul.

Warrior's strength

By level 16 your combat strength rivals that of legend. you may increase you strength score and maximum by 2

Additionally if you are wearing heavy armor you gain +1 to AC in addition to its regular bonus. Your strength is so impressive that you can add your strength mod to any charisma or performance check you make for persuasion or intimidation.

Latly your strength inurres you from certain conditions. While you are wearing heavy armor you become immune to the Restrained condition.

Warrior's Soul

At level 20 as a bonus action you may bind with a Parlayed soul of at least 4th level and at least of CR 15 to gain the following benefits: For the next 10 minutes your Weapon attacks deal an 1 additional damage dice and you can attack 4 times using the attack action.

Also Depending on the soul you bound with you gain its movement speed options (growing spectral appendages appropriate for the movement speed), and if its base strength score is higher than yours, you may substitute it as your own for any roll that would use strength for the duration (your replaced score may exceed 22 and go up to 30).

Soul Path of the Rogue

(Needs Revision) Theme: The curse of Hollowing break most but not you, you only half broke and you learned how to break others. (Needs a rp feature.)

Rogue's Prowess

At 1st level you gain proficiency in light/ medium armor and Light & finesse weapons. Additionally you can take a bonus action on each of your turns in combat to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action. You also gain an extra 5 feet of movement

Rogue's Retaliation

By 3rd level, Also you get an action surge (max 1), you can make a action surge and gain a level of exuastion. Additionally when you make an attack action you may attack twice as part of the same action.

Evasive Meneuvers

At level 5, When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail. Additionally you may take the dodge action as a bonus action on your turn.

Lastly if you successfully parry an attack using your Riposte ability, your attack is made with advantage.

Rogue's Finesse

Beginning at 10th level, if an enemy is focused on another target (flanked, didn't attack you on the current or last round) or is distracted (suffering under a status effect like poison, fear, charmed other than invisible) you may spend a bonus action to move up to your speed, and perform an attack with advantage on that enemy.

(you must not be facing the front of the target, this doesn't work if the target is huge or larger)

Deadly Critical

At 13th level, your critical range increases. Rolling 18-20 counts as a critical seucces for you. Additionally as a free action you may spend souls to give yourself advantage on your next attack roll. To do this you must expend either: 5 tiny souls / 3 small souls / or 1 medium soul. Lastly When you when you make an attack action you may attack 3 times as part of the same action

Critical Strike

At level 16 If you land a critical hit, the target is vunerable to resulting damage.

Rogue Soul

[Bonus Action] At 20th level, As a bonus action you may bind with a Parlayed soul of at least 4th level and at least of CR 15 to gain the following benefits: For the next 10 minutes The binded soul increases your natural stamina, and you gain the properties of the haste spells for the duration.

Additionally while in this state you crit on a roll of 16-20. Depending on the soul you bound with you gain its movement speed options (growing spectral appendages appropriate for the movement speed). Lastly, if the parleyed soul has a higher dexterity score than you, you may substitute it as your own for any roll that would use Dexterity for the duration, up to a maximum of 30.

Soul Path of the Divine

Many who faced the curse of hollowing, in turn cursed the gods for their ill fortune, you however saw the gods as the only cure to this Hollowing which afflicts you.

Divine Soul casting

At 1st level when you take this path, you gain Proficiency with medium armor, shields and simple weapons. You also gain access to the cleric spell list. (Spellcating ability WIS) (Spell save =8 + Prof + Wis mod).

Divine Soul

At 20th level [Bonus Action] As a bonus action you may bind with a Parlayed soul of at least 4th level and at least of CR 15 to gain the following benefits: For the next 10 minutes spells you cast that deal damage deal an additional 2D8 radiant damage. Additionally, at the start and end of your turn you regain 2d8 + your wisdom modifier worth of health, if you so chose you may forgo this healing and give it to a creature that you can see in your healing range. If the bound creature has a higher wisdom score that yours, you may substitute it as your own for any roll that would use your wisdom for the duration. up to a maximum of 30.

Soul Path of the Magus

Though most would consider the curse of undeath a horrible affliction, you are intrigued by it. And now with all the time in the world you set yourself to studying and understanding your 'curse'.

Mage Soul

At 20th level, as a bonus action you may bind with a Parlayed soul of at least 4th level and at least of CR 15 to gain the following benefits: For the next 10 minutes (Maybe a better signiture spell / spell mastery?) Melf's Minute Meateors ➡ Crown of stars?

Soul Path of the Magus: spell slots

Level	Cantrips	Spells Known	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th
1st	2	2	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	2	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	2	4	3	─	—	—	—	—	—
4th	2	5	3	─	—	—	—	—	—
5th	2	6	4	2	—	—	—	—	—
6th	2	7	4	2	—	—	—	—	—
7th	2	8	4	3	—	—	—	—	—
8th	2	9	4	3	—	—	—	—	—
9th	2	10	4	3	2	—	—	—	—
10th	3	11	4	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	3	11	4	3	3	—	—	—	—
12th	3	12	4	3	3	—	—	—	—
13th	3	12	4	3	3	1	—	—	—
14th	4	12	4	3	3	1	—	—	—
15th	4	13	4	3	3	2	—	—	—
16th	4	13	4	3	3	2	—	—	—
17th	4	13	4	3	3	3	1	—	—
18th	4	14	4	3	3	3	1	—	—
19th	4	14	4	3	3	3	2	1	—
20th	4	14	4	3	3	3	2	2	1