Sorcerous Origin: Artefact

Chosen by your Focus

Many Sorcerers are chosen - either by gods, magical entities, or the very elements themselves. Some gain their power from their bloodlines, or from becoming submerged in the arcane during some great event. You, however, have been infused with power by a thing, a sentient arcane focus that, through your choice or not, has bonded itself to you.

Perhaps it willingly offered itself to your service in order to save your life, or perhaps you just couldn't keep your hands off a shiny thing in an accursed temple. Either way, you now have something, a rod, a staff, a crystal, an orb - an object, that lends you immense power and speaks to you. It is the source of your magic, but you are a special host indeed. Over the years you have been bonded with it to the point where casting magic is like breathing, something so natural to you that you still hold considerable prowess without it.

Your focus might be anything - from an elderly wizard who became trapped inside a crystal for millennia, to the fragment of an old god's mind that speaks to you in babbled whispers, to the heart of a fae entity that guides you to protect the wild places of the world.

Bonded Focus

At 1st level, you gain an arcane focus that you may use as a spellcasting focus for your sorcerer spells. This focus takes on an appearance of your choice, and is sentient. The focus may be of any alignment you choose. You may communicate telepathically with your bonded focus so long as you are within 60ft of it. It can only observe the outside world when it is within 10ft of you, and it cannot speak.

When you first gain this feature, you forgo one cantrip granted by your sorcerer class in order to learn 2 cantrips from any class, including your own, that you may cast whilst holding this focus in at least one free hand. Your bonded focus gains another cantrip at 6th level, and another at 14th level, which you are not required to forgo sorcerer cantrips for. These are spells that it knew in its previous life, or possesses as part of its nature.

If your focus is lost or destroyed, you must spend 10 minutes and 15 gold's worth of materials in the form of reagents specific to its nature in order to summon it again.
An Artefact's Wishes

As a sentient object, your focus has wishes, goals and an alignment of its own. Unlike warlock patrons, a bonded focus and the sorcerer it grants magic to share a symbiotic relationship that neither party can withdraw from. This does not stop the focus from enacting mischief should it be angry at its host, however.

If you go against your focus' philosophy it may choose to start interfering with your spellcasting. Any time you cast a spell whilst holding your focus, it may choose to roll 1d20. On a result of 5 or lower, you must roll on the wild magic surge table (PHB 104) and suffer a magical effect. In general, the focus will only do this if it is upset with its owner.

Empower

At 6th level, you have gained the ability to briefly empower your artefact.

As a bonus action, you may spend 3 sorcery points to begin empowering your bonded focus. Whilst empowered, you gain several benefits:

  • Your focus hovers next to you, and follows you at your speed if you move. At the end of the duration, it returns to your hand. If you do not have a hand free, it falls to a space within 5ft of you.
  • You may cast the cantrips granted by your bonded focus feature even when your focus is not in your hand.
  • Once per turn, you may add twice your Charisma modifier to the damage of any cantrip cast through your focus.

This lasts for a minute, during which you must maintain concentration as if you were concentrating on a spell. If you lose concentration, the benefits of this feature end.

Secrets of Another Mind

At 14th level, your bond with your artefact advances and you are able to draw on more foreign powers related to the entity that resides within.

You may choose two spells from any class of 5th level or lower. Whilst you are holding your focus, you may cast these spells as sorcerer spells.

Synergy

At 18th level, you may use your bonus action to allow your focus to hover next to you as per your Empower feature, and return it to your hand with another bonus action.

In addition, when empowering your focus you may expend another 4 sorcery points to make it protect you, granting you resistance to any damage from spells, and preventing all damage from magic missile for the duration. Whilst empowered in this way, you may also cast your bonded focus' cantrips using your bonus action, regardless of their casting time.

(Image Credit: Nakai Wen, http://nakaiwen.cgsociety.org/)