#homebrew5e

A world in disarray, the city of Harroway is not a unified bastion against the Blight; it is a battleground of ideologies. Three major factions vie for control of the last city, each with a different vision for humanity’s survival. Their struggles are not fought with swords alone, but with words, faith, and the very souls of the people they claim to protect. ⚔️🔥❄️

The Church of the Radiant Pyre 🙏🔥

The dominant and most visible power in Harroway. The Church controls the distribution of Corpus Fluid and holds an almost complete monopoly on history, public faith, and moral authority. They are led by the charismatic and ruthless Archon Valerius, who preaches that the Blight is a holy trial, and that only through absolute faith and the purging flame of Radiant and Pyreous energies can humanity be saved. 🕯️

Core Belief: The world’s suffering is a test. Only by embracing the punishing, purifying fire can humanity atone for the sins that led to the Great Rupture.

Public Face: They are benevolent shepherds, providing food and light and a sense of purpose in a dying world.

Hidden Truth: The Church is secretly terrified. Their central flame—an ancient artifact—is slowly dying. Their zealotry is born of a desperate fear that their holy fire is no match for the Blight. The Pyrekeepers, their fanatical secret police, keep the populace in a state of perpetual fear, silencing anyone who questions their authority. 🤫

The Order of the Veiled Path 📜🧊

A secretive network of scholars, rogues, and dissidents who reject the Church’s brutal dogma. Led by the enigmatic Mistress Isolde, the Order seeks to uncover the truth behind the Silent Sisters and the Great Rupture. They believe that true salvation lies in knowledge, not faith, and they seek to master the rare and difficult Cryogenic energy to freeze the Blight in its tracks. 🧊

Core Belief: The Blight can be understood, and with understanding comes control. They believe the world can be saved, but only if they are willing to sacrifice motion and life itself to achieve a permanent state of stillness.

Public Face: They are often seen as heretics and outcasts, living on the fringes of society or in the Sanguine Warrens below the city.

Hidden Truth: The Order is a fractured alliance. They are not all united, and many of their members have selfish or even dangerous agendas. The pursuit of knowledge in a blighted world can lead to madness, and many of the Order’s experiments have gone horribly wrong. 🧪

The Last Legion 🛡️⚔️

The military force of Harroway, a grim and weary army tasked with the impossible job of protecting the city's colossal walls. Led by the stoic and pragmatic General Kaelen, the Legion cares little for the ideological squabbles of the Church or the Order. Their only concern is the survival of the city, and they will make any sacrifice necessary to ensure its walls hold. 🧱

Core Belief: Survival is the only law. Ideology and faith are luxuries that Harroway cannot afford. Their pragmatism is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness.

Public Face: They are the city's protectors, the tireless sentinels who stand watch over a world of horrors.

Hidden Truth: The Legion is a desperate force. They are constantly losing soldiers to the Blight, and their resources are dwindling. They have secretly been holding back powerful, legendary weapons in preparation for a final battle they know is coming. 🕰️

I've been thinking about this a lot since starting priest, and part of why I've been going through making it in the way I have, a few levels at a time, is because I've not been sure how to do later levels until I get there.

I think a good capstone for D&D should zero in on the thematic and mechanical cores of the class, and improve them someway: Barbarian's Primal Champion is great at this for example. What makes a barbarian a barbarian? How strong and tough they are. How can we improve that thematically? Improve those stats.

Monk's Perfect Self on the other hand (correctly) identifies sorcery points as the core of the class, but doesn't quite hit the narrative for me. ki point recovery on inititive rest isn't a bad idea, but what does it actually tell you about the class, what's the narrative for recovering ki when you fight?

For Priest, there's one main point I wanted to zone in on with the class: The Customization. Priest has so many different options for how to build them, from Diety's Domain to Divine Calling to Method of Worship, I wanted level 20 of priest to relate to these somehow.

Initially I was looking at paladins, how they get their capstone feature from their subclass, in this case I was going to make Divine Callings give creatures that capstone, but that wasn't enough. Next I was going to make the capstone something all priests got that interacted with the different Divine Domains priests can connect to, but that also didn't quite hit the mark.

Eventually it struck me when discussing Mage Hand Press' Necromancer class earlier today. Necromancer's Capstone lets characters gain Lichdom from the core class, which grants a few benefits, but then the subclasses expand on this too. I could use this for Priest, and so came up with:

Divinity Incarnate

20th-level priest feature

As an action, you can become your deity or pantheon’s incarnation on the material plane for one minute. While you are an incarnation, you gain the following benefits as well as those dictated by your Divine Calling and Method of Worship:

At the start of each of your turns, you regain miracle points equal to half your spellcasting ability modifier.

At the start of each of your turns, you can change which domain you are channeling.

You gain immunity to necrotic and radiant damage.

You can use this feature once, and regain the ability to use it when you complete a long rest.

This feature already interacts with Divine Calling and Miracle points from the core class and grants two thematic immunities for a priest, but that's not all, as the feature mentions, Method of Worship and Divine Calling both also add features. Take Cultist for example:

Cultist Incarnate

20th-level Cultist feature

While you are an incarnation, the damage dice from your Vital Drain feature become d12s instead of d6s.

My Human Barbarian from my current Pathfinders game. Was trying to make backstory and well- this was born. I got a lot of reference and inspiration from Apex Legends, Titanfall(even though I’ve never touched the game), Metal Gear Solid and much more! Hope you like my trash!