Pact of the Specter

You have been possessed. Your patron is a specter who was extremely powerful in life but barely remembers their history. Perhaps they were a powerful wizard, an evil king, or a master thief. In return for power and gifts from your patron, you've agreed to allow her to share your body and live vicariously through you, perhaps with the goal of finding a new body or taking over yours indefinitely.

Warlocks with a pact of the specter have intimate relationships with their patrons. Patrons are able to intrude into the warlock’s every thought and vice versa. Unlike other pacts, there is no room for dishonesty between a warlock and her specter patron and every moment is a struggle for control. When creating a pact of the specter warlock, work with your DM to come up with a history for your patron. Below are a few ideas for patrons and their goals that can be used for inspiration.

Example

D8 Patron 1 Great Grandmother that always hated the rest of the family. She wants to groom her warlock to represent the family well. 2 Thug that made a fortune mugging rich people with a cursed dagger. He wants to find his dagger and return to his violent ways. 3 Ruler of a forgotten kingdom. She wants to rediscover her lost land and return it to its former glory 4 Mad scientist that conducted alchemical experiments on himself. He wants to continue his experiments on his warlock 5 Powerful Wizard that had a particular interest in Necromancy. He wants to craft a perfect body for himself out of the corpses of others 6 High Inquisitor of a dead religion. She wants to reignite worship for her deity by converting nonbelievers and smiting heretics. 7 Aristocrat who collected occult and cursed jewelry. He wants to get revenge on the person who sold him the cursed necklace that killed him. 8 Disgraced knight who turned to dark magic to regain her honor. She wants to bring honor back to her family name.

Expanded Spell List

The Specter lets you choose from an expanded list of Spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following Spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Specter Expanded Spells

Spell Level Spells 1st Fog Cloud, Inflict Wounds 2nd Enhance Ability, Warding Wind 3rd Blink, Spirit Guardians 4th Death Ward, Phantasmal Killer 5th Animate Objects, Skill Empowerment

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/scary-eerie-spooky-dark-fog-666620/

Published uncer CC0

Aid from Beyond

At first level, you learn the guidance cantrip, it counts as a warlock cantrip for you, but it does not count against your number of cantrips known. Additionally, you gain the use of one additional language that your patron speaks. Only your patron speaks this language, but the terms of your pact allow you to ask the specter to communicate for you.

Pact Boon: Pact of the Heirloom

At 3rd level, a warlock with a specter patron can select this option instead of one of the warlock’s existing pact boons. After possessing you, your specter patron has regained enough power to reattune to an item from their past, granting them a clearer memory of their previous life and the skills they had mastered. This item can be anything, but some examples include A tattered cowl, a broken mirror, or a tarnished locket.

Choose two skills. As long as you are in possession of the heirloom, you are considered proficient in the chosen skills. Additionally, you can cast speak with dead as a ritual. When you cast speak with dead in this way, you gain proficiency in one skill or tool the target was proficient in while they were alive until you complete a long rest. When you gain a new proficiency by speaking with the dead, lose any proficiencies previously gained in this way.

Terrorize

At 6th level, when a creature makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to have your Specter phase out of your person and frighten them. If you do, the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, with a DC equal to your warlock spellcasting DC. On a failure, the target does not roll to attack and instead moves its speed away from you. All creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the beginning of your next turn. Once you have used this ability you can not use it again until you complete a short rest or long rest.