Roguish Archetype - Therion
People aren't born therions, and they can't be tied down to any one bloodline. Instead therions are the results of magical confluxes tied to extreme emotional distress. Most commonly this is deliberate - a result of magical experimentation by wizards seeking to create a therion for their own (usually nefarious) purposes. Rarely however they may occur seemingly by chance, often near wild magic areas.
Regardless of how they came to be, therions are all marked in a similar way. Fiendish powers run through their blood, changing them once it manifests. Therions all possess a deep hunger though, one that cannot be sated no matter how much they eat. This hunger often drives therions to madness as they try to consume more and more sustenance only to find that the pit inside them is forever empty. A therion's lifespan is thus often dictated by how long they can manage the hunger.
Being of fiendish blood, Therions are not viewed well when discovered in 'polite' society and they often need to hide their true nature. Even among other creatures with 'questionable' ancestry such as tieflings their condition means they're viewed with at best wariness and at worst outright hostility. A therion wishing to live amongst people either needs to conceal themselves or have the support of the powerful in order not to be run out of town.
Demon Body
Your demonic therion blood manifests, granting you some benefits and drawbacks. At 3rd level, while wearing no armour or light armour you have a +1 bonus to AC. In addition, you gain proficiency (if you didn't already have it) in the acrobatics skill.
However this does not come without a cost, and you lose a bit of your mortal existence as a result of the fiendish powers inside you. You retain your creature type, yet you register as fiend to spells and other effects that detect the presence of the fiend creature type. The Holy aura and Hallow spells affect you as if you were a fiend also.
Even when fully fed, you always feel hungry. In addition you must either roll a 1d6 on the table below or choose one of the options as a permanent change to your body.
Lost
| Roll | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sleep | You lose the ability to get a good night's sleep. Instead your a faced with bouts of insomnia, nightmares and staring up at the ceiling for long periods of time. In order to gain the benefits of a long rest you require 10 hours instead of the usual 8. Therions who can trance require 8 hours of rest instead of four. |
| Roll | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Taste | You lose the ability to taste anything except blood. Food doesn't taste good or bad, it simply doesn't taste, as if you are swallowing air. You still require food and water for nourishment however. |
| 3 | Emotions | Emotional control is much more difficult now, and you are prone to outbursts of emotions both 'positive' (eg. joy, happiness, pleasure) and 'negative' (eg. anger, hatred, sadness) with seemingly no rhyme or reason. |
| 4 | Form | Your appearance receives obvious changes as a result of your fiendish blood. These usually involve a combination of (partial or total) skin colour/texture, eyes colour/shape, growing horns, a tail or claws, potentially some small (unusable) wings. This may also affect your natural scent, with some therions always smelling of ash or sulfur. Regardless of the extent of the change, people automatically recognise you as not quite normal. |
| 5 | Memory | Your demonic power manifesting shatters your memories, leaving you with little more than scattered fragments, bits and pieces that can never be put together again. You permanently lose almost all of your memories of people and place. |
| 6 | Touch | Your skin loses the ability to feel as clearly. Textures become dulled, as do both extreme and normal temperatures. You still take damage as normal but physical pain and pleasure both are lessened. |
Consuming Claw
At third level you gain the ability to manifest a demonic claw and make an attack with it as an action or a bonus action, but you can only attack with it once per turn. When manifested it engulfs one of you arms entirely, preventing you from using that hand to hold objects or cast spells. The attack you deliver counts as a finesse weapon for the purposes of attack and damage modifiers, and sneak attack, and deals 1d6 necrotic damage. Should you deal damage with the claw you consume a portion of the target's soul/essence and either gain a temporary boon or give a temporary bane to your target depending on their creature type.
The boon can only be gained once per creature type at a time, and lasts for one minute. If the same creature type is consumed again, the duration is refreshed.
The damage this deals increases as you level, increasing to 1d8 at 7th level, 1d10 at 11th level, 1d12 at 15th level and 2d8 at 19th level.
You can attack with the claw a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, refreshing on a short rest.
You may also, seperately, consume a dead creature's corpse with your claw without limitation. A medium or smaller creature's corpse takes one minute to consume, doubling for each size category beyond medium. Consuming a medium-or-larger creature in this manner offers sufficient nourishment for a day's worth of food and drink.
Consuming Claw Effect
| Creature Type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Abberation | You gain the use of a second Reaction. |
| Beast | You double the damage bonus from your ability modifier with weapon attacks. |
| Celestial | Your movement speeds are increased by 15' and opportunity attacks against you have disadvantage |
| Construct | Creatures attacking the affected target roll a 1d4 and add this to any attack rolls. |
| Dragon | The affected target rolls a 1d4 on any attack rolls made, and subtracts the amount from the roll. |
| Elemental | Your weapon attacks deal additional elemental damage (of the appropriate element) equal to your constitution modifier (minimum 1). |
| Fey | The affected targets mental abilities are reduced by 1d4. |
| Fiend | The affected target is unable to gain temporary hit points and any healing it receives instead deals damage equal to half the amount intended to heal. |
| Giant | The affected target rolls a 1d6 whenever they want to take a Reaction. On a 1-4 they cannot take one this round. On a 5-6 they can act normally. |
| Humanoid | After you take damage, gain temporary hit points equal to half the damage taken. These last until the end of your next turn. This can only occur once per round. |
| Monstrosity | You gain resistance to the next damage type that affects you, which reduces that attack also. |
| Ooze | You gain advantage on ability checks and saving throws involving one ability score, rolled randomly. |
| Plant | The affected target's movement speeds are reduced by 15' and any opportunity attacks against them are made with advantage. |
| Undead | The affected target subtracts 1d4 on all saving throws they make. |
Optional Rule: Consuming Magic Weapons
The Consuming Claw as standard cannot be improved in the same way magic weapons can. Optionally, your DM may allow you to consume a magic weapon via a one hour ritual, thereby allowing its attack and damage bonus (and any additional effects) to apply whenever you attack with your claw. If you do so, your claw can only benefit from one consumed weapon at a time, and normal attunement rules apply. Once consumed, the magic weapon cannot be recovered or removed from you, save by a Wish spell or divine intervention.
Break Soul
At 9th level when you deal damage with your Consuming Claw, a portion of the essence is shaved off instead of being consumed, leaving a small soul fragment at a point of your choosing within 15' of the target. A creature, friendly or otherwise, who moves through this fragment can regain hit points equal to your Consuming Claw's damage, or regain a spell slot of the lowest level they have expended, up to third level. Any excess hit points are gained as temporary hit points that last for one minute.
You also gain immunity to the Frightened condition.
Demon Rage
At 13th level you can manifest your inner demon. This lasts for 1 minute. While enraged, you gain the following benefits:
- You gain resistance to fire and non-magical slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage.
- You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength Saving Throws.
- Your Consuming Claw deals additional damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
- You gain temporary hit points equal to your Rogue level.
Demon Rage can be activated as a bonus action either alone or as part of the bonus action to use Consuming Claw. You can activate your Demon Rage once, refreshing on a short rest.
Absolute Consumption
At 17th level when a creature is killed with your Consuming Claw you can consume a portion of its memories and the knowledge it had while alive. You gain the memories of the last 24 hours that the creature had, along with proficiency in one skill, tool, or save that the creature possessed of your choice. You can have up to three such proficiencies gained at a time from this feature, and when you consume another soul you can choose to replace the one you had with a new one.
The creature's soul is consumed by you doing this, and cannot be returned except via divine intervention.