Riven Medium (Otherworldly Warlock Patron)

Warlocks derive their powers from otherworldly entities. In almost all cases, these entities maintain a distance and communicate with the warlock. In the case of the Riven Medium, this is not the case. The Riven Medium instead offers up their very own being as a channel for the otherworldly entity, allowing it to use the individual to interact with the world directly. Some scholars of the occult regard mediums as dangerous people with corrupted souls. While this may or may not be true for most mediums, riven mediums are the most likely source of those scholars’ beliefs. This is because these mediums’ minds are impure, being able to unleash the personality of a dark creature as an act of will. The dark personality enhances a riven medium’s magic, but also makes him vulnerable to evil magic.

Riven mediums become two personalities sharing a single body. Both the cruel “dark personality” and the original medium think of themselves as the true form, and they must learn to work together to achieve their joint goals. More often than not, riven mediums eventually become their dark personality, and the normal personality may only be brought forth when required by social custom or a need for obscurity and stealth arises. Unfortunately, the dark personality of a riven medium is often a more violent, unforgiving personality (which can lead to conflict between the two versions of the same character).

Note on Alignment: Any. A riven medium has two alignments (see the dark personality ability), of which at least one must be evil. While a riven medium can be of any alignment, most that are good-aligned find that the actions taken and thoughts made while the dark personality is manifested eventually make them neutral.

Dark Personality: A riven medium’s dark personality is an alter ego that has a different personality than his own, an outgrowth of the corruption within his soul. The dark personality shares memories and basic goals with the riven medium’s normal personality but goes about meeting those goals in a different manner. The dark personality is often ugly and monstrous, and may even think it has a different race or gender than the medium’s. Indeed, the dark personality often has his or her own name, may have different body language and facial expressions from his normal personality, and may attempt to maintain independent relationships and strongholds (though the alter ego’s limited time in existence often makes this difficult). The dark personality even has his or her own alignment (which is selected by the player, but must be different from the riven medium’s normal alignment, and must be evil). The change in alignment only affects the riven medium while in her dark personality, as far as detect spells are concerned, but he is susceptible to other alignment effects as detailed under the vulnerability to corruption ability.

Designer’s Note: The Riven Medium

The riven medium is not appropriate as an option for player characters for all groups, because some groups do not allow evil PCs, and that’s fine. In such cases, the archetype can be used by NPCs. For those groups that do allow evil PCs, a riven medium character should never be used to upset or annoy other players and/or the GM, or to disrupt a game that is taking place. Riven mediums work best when a dark personality is created that allows the character to be task-focused and that works with the other characters present to achieve those tasks. It is not an excuse for bad behavior.

Example: Daron is a neutral good riven medium. His dark personality is called Zarath. Zarath is lawful evil, and more interested in seeing an ordered world ruled by the powerful than promoting the greater good. Zarath is aware he exists only when called on by Daron, but seeks to build his own circle of like-minded friends during the hours he exists. Zarath does not dislike Daron, but feels his normal personality is too soft and innocent to survive in the harsh world the medium lives in. As Daron, the character detects as good; as Zarath, the same character is detects as lawful evil for the purpose of spells like detect evil and good.

Expanded Spell List

The riven medium 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.

Level	Spells
1st	disguise self, ray of sickness
2nd	alter self, detect thoughts
3rd	clairvoyance, fireball
4th	confusion, polymorph
5th	geas, mislead

Manifest Corruption

Starting at 1st level, by allowing the corruption inherent within your soul to overcome you, your dark personality manifests as a bonus action. When using manifest corruption, You increases the DCs of your medium and regular warlock spells by 1, gain advantage on Wisdom saves, and become immune to the frightened condition. You can use manifest corruption once per day for 10 rounds per warlock level. Your dark personality manifests until manifest corruption’s duration expires, your magic is interrupted (as with an antimagic field), or you expend another use of his manifest corruption ability. When you are in mortal peril, such as when combat starts, you must succeed at a DC 15 Wisdom save or manifest your dark personality (which counts as a use of manifest corruption).

At 6th level, you can manifest corruption two times per day; this increases to three times per day at 10th level, four times per day at 14th level. At 10th level, the duration of manifest corruption is doubled.

Protection Aura

Starting at 6th level, when using manifest corruption, you project a field which protects you. All damage in a round is reduced by 5. Also, the DC of your warlock and medium spells increases by 2, so it is now 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.

Corruption Rising

At 10th level, your becomes more prominent. When using manifest corruption, all damage in a round is reduced by 10 and the DC of your medium spells increases by 3, so it is now 11 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.

Corruption Ascendant

Starting at 14th level, your corruption becomes ascendant in your soul. When using manifest corruption, the DC of your warlock and medium spells increases by 4, so it is now 12 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier. In addition to that, all damage per round is reduced by 15.