Dragon Spirit Pact is a reflavoring of the Infernal Pact for the Hexblade Warlock. This generally involves changing the power names and flavor text, but I made some slight mechanical changes to try and fit the flavor better. Since I’m attempting to emulate a metallic Spirit Wyrm (see below the cut), I generally changed powers with Necrotic damage to Radiant. For a chromatic version, I’d have probably left them Necrotic and had some different power names. In any case, since this isn’t an official article or change, feel free to work with your DM or player to get exactly what you’re looking for. This isn’t a comprehensive list of possible changes, just a series of examples based on what I did for the character I created this for.
Background
Many dragons do not rest quietly once they have passed beyond the realms of the living. Somewhere between life and death, these lingering spectres spectres still desire to touch and effect the mortal world. They might want to exercise the power and influence they once had, to avenge their own deaths, or to continue with the plans and plots of countless years. However, as time passes on, most lose their fight to remain and leave to whatever afterlife awaits them. Many of the rest begin to lose their sense of self and can only fight off their dissolution by joining with other draconic spirits, eventually becoming a gestalt creature called a Spirit Wyrm. The individual dragon ghosts are not lost in this process, but can only assert their individuality with great effort and only for short periods of time. Spirit Wyrms are usually comprised entirely of one type of dragon (chromatic, metallic) and the few exceptions are deranged and dangerous beings driven mad by their internal conflicts.
Despite their transformation and great power, the Spirit Wyrm still has no way to touch the mortal world despite every desire to do so. Some mortals, however, have found that these ghosts are willing to bargain for the opportunity to once again interact with the living realm. The mortal offers to be a conduit for the Spirit Wyrm to see the world with living eyes and, in an indirect way, touch and influence it once more. In exchange, the Spirit Wyrm allows the warlock to draw on some of its great power. Most use this power to blast their foes with energies and attacks reminiscent of the dragons themselves, but a few have found a way to pool the power to create a fearsome broadsword called the Blade of the Great Wyrm.
- Blade of Oblivion becomes the Blade of the Great Wyrm. No other changes.
- Eldritch Bolt becomes Dragon Claw Slash. No other changes.
- Example Dragon Claw Slash flavor text: “A dragon claw of pure arcane force appears at your command and rends your foe from a distance.”
- Soul Eater becomes Draconic Assault. Necrotic damage changed to Radiant.
- Example Draconic Assault flavor text: “The furious assault from your black blade sends your opponent reeling and open to further attacks.”
- Soul Feast becomes Dragon Spirit Rejuvenation. No other changes.
- Blazing Doom of the Void has multiple changes and variations. The consistent change is again from Necrotic to Radiant. I intended this to reflect calling upon a different dragon aspect for power and to provide some variety and choice for the player. Picking a species of dragon and changing the secondary damage keyword and name to reflect that choice. With fire damage, the power becomes Gold Soul Strike. With acid damage, it becomes Copper Soul Strike. And so on. I personally did Iron Soul Strike (lightning instead of fire damage) and Silver Soul Strike (cold instead of fire damage). That way you get some more variety instead of just two uses of the same power.
- Lesser Planar Ally becomes Lesser Dragon Spirit Ally. No other changes.
- Hellfire Blast becomes Arcane Inferno. No other changes.
- Roaring Storm of Cania becomes Rage of Silver Dragons. No other changes.
- Reflexive Hellstrike becomes Spirit Wyrm’s Wrath. Necrotic damaged changed to Radiant.
Again, these are just examples of what I’ve done with it. Hopefully it’ll inspire you not just to do your own take on this particular pact, but to go and play with the flavor or story of other classes as well to get something unique to you.
Bravo! Nice work on capturing the flavor of a dragon empowered warlock. Tweaking the keywords for damage types based on the particular dragon the warlock is attuned to is an inspired tweak, and really adds character flavor for roleplay purposes. If I ever manage to find my way into a home game as opposed to a D&D Encounters session, I’ll definitely bring this possibility up to the DM!
@Phantasmavore Thanks for the kind words. The keyword tweaks based on the type of dragon (or even category, as far as the necrotic/radiant change based on chromatic or metallic respectively) just feel more fun to me this way. Not just in terms of flavor, but also mechanically. You don’t just have 1 power that you can use 2 times per encounter. You just have 2 powers and depending on the resists or vulnerabilities of the monsters you’re facing, that can be big.