Pact of the Chord

Magical music has long been the province of the bard, with its ability to vibrate the threads of creation and tug at reality. But many powerful entities, including Warlock patrons, have shown an interest in music's ability to warp emotions and the mind. Legends are replete with stories of magical faerie music deceiving mortal travelers, fiddle duels with fiends, and otherworldly songs that cut deftly through time and space.

This Pact Boon is designed to work for single-class warlocks or warlock/bard multi-classers who want to add a sinister edge to their musical powers.

Using a Pact Instrument

Upon choosing this pact boon at level 3, you can use your action to create a pact instrument in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this musical instrument takes each time you create it. You are proficient with it while you hold it. This instrument counts as both a bardic spell focus and an arcane focus.

Whenever you cast a first-level spell or higher, you may take an additional action to cast animal friendship, charm person, command, sleep, or Tasha’s hideous laughter at first level. You do not need to know the spell and it does not consume a spell slot when cast in this way. When you use this ability, you may not use it again for 10 minutes. You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain all expended uses upon completing a long rest.

Your pact instrument disappears if it is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more or if another creature holds it while you are not touching it. It also disappears if you use this feature again, if you dismiss the instrument (no action required), or if you die.

You can transform one magical instrument into your pact instrument by performing a special ritual while you hold the instrument. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the instrument, shunting it into an extradimensional space, and it appears whenever you create your pact instrument thereafter. The instrument ceases being your pact instrument if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different instrument, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The instrument appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.

Eldritch Invocations

If an eldritch invocation has prerequisites, you must meet them to learn it. You can learn the invocation at the same time that you meet its prerequisites. The following invocations all include Pact of the Chord as a prerequisite.

Backmasking

You can hide messages in your music for others to discover. When you play your pact instrument, you may communicate telepathically to any one creature you can see within 30 feet. That creature must be able to hear you.

Crossroads

Prerequisite: The Fiend patron

You are proficient in Performance. If you already have proficiency, apply double your proficiency bonus on Charisma(Performance) checks. You can live an aristocratic lifestyle at no gold expense.

Fairy Circle Dance

Prerequisite: The Archfey patron

As an action, you can conjure a fairy circle of mushrooms to inflict mischief upon a sleeping target. Roll a d20. If the target remains asleep in the circle for more than one hour, the corresponding effect occurs:

1: The sleeping victim is abducted by fae creatures for one day. Their body is replaced on the plane it was taken from with a crude wooden figurine. On the dawn after this effect has occurred, they wake up in the location where they had gone to sleep. Reroll this result if in the Feywild.

2-9: The sleeping victim falls deeply in love with the first person they see when they wake up. This condition can be cured with a remove curse spell or a greater restoration spell.

10-17: The sleeping victim is transformed into a random Beast of CR 1 or lower. The effect ends upon completion of another long rest or if the beast’s hit points drop to 0. Any damage dealt to the beast that is not absorbed by its HP spills over to the creature’s previous form.

18-20: Whisper a command and a trigger into the sleeping victim’s ear. The following day, if the triggering event happens, the victim must obey the command to the best of its abilities for up to 30 minutes. It will not willing put itself in harm’s way, such as harming itself or fighting any foe to the death.

Any creature affected by Fairy Circle Dance can never be affected by it again.