dauntless/content/Classes/Warlock/Pact of the Elder Wood.md

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Old Margreve

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You have made a pact with the ancient intelligence of a primeval forest. Before the rise of human civilization, before the time of the goblins, before even the dragons, there were the forests. Empires rise and fall around them, but the forests remain as a testament to nature’s endurance. 

However, times are changing, and the unchecked growth of civilization threatens the green. The intelligences that imbue the ancient forests seek emissaries in the world that can act beyond their boughs, and one has heard your call for power. You are a guardian of the Elder Wood, a questing branch issuing from a vast, slumbering intelligence sent to act on its behalf, perhaps even to excise these lesser beings from its borders. Your patron bestows upon you the power of its unchecked growth and its hunger for magic.

	Elder Wood Progression
Warlock Level	Features
3rd	Elder Wood Pact Spells, Expanded Pact Boons, Forest’s Grace
7th	Sap Magic
11th	Nature’s Endurance
15th	Avatar of the Wood

Elder Wood Pact Spells

3rd-Level Elder Wood Feature 

You gain origin spells at the warlock levels listed in the Elder Wood Pact Spells table. See the Warlock Subclass class feature for how these spells work.

	Elder Wood Pact Spells
Warlock Level	Spells
3rd	animal friendship, faerie fire
5th	spike growth, wildsense
9th	conjure animals, protection from energy
13th	conjure woodland beings, giant insect
17th	greater restoration, tree stride

Expanded Pact Boons 

3rd-Level Elder Wood Feature 

Your patron’s influence subtly changes your Pact Boon. 

• Pact of the Blade. The blade of the Elder Wood is a weapon made of wood and thorns and grows out of your palm. When you cast shillelagh, your Pact Blade is affected by the spell, regardless of the form your Pact Blade takes. 
• Pact of the Chain. Your familiar can be a plant that uses the statistics of an awakened shrub or a child of the briar, or it can be one of the other options normally available to you.
• Pact of the Tome. The Elder Wood grows a tome for you. The tome’s cover is hardened bark from the forest’s native trees, and its pages are leaves whose color changes with the seasons. When you gain this feature, choose one cantrip from the Primordial spell list. While the tome is on your person, you can cast this cantrip, and the cantrip counts as a Wyrd spell for you. When you gain the Enhanced Boon feature, the rituals you choose or find can be from the Primordial or Wyrd ritual lists, and rituals transcribed in the tome count as Wyrd spells for you. With your tome in hand, you can cast any rituals transcribed in it. If your tome is lost or destroyed, you must return to your patron forest for it to grow you a new one, but the ceremony is otherwise the same.

Forest’s Grace

3rd-Level Elder Wood Feature 

You learn the shillelagh cantrip. It counts as a Wyrd spell for you, and it doesn’t count against your number of cantrips known. In addition, difficult terrain caused by roots, underbrush, and other natural vegetation doesn’t cost you extra movement. You suffer other penalties caused by moving through difficult terrain, as normal.

Sap Magic

7th-Level Elder Wood Feature 

Your patron hungers for magic and imparts some of that hunger on you. When a creature you can see within 30 feet of you casts a 1st-circle or higher spell, which can include yourself, you can use your reaction to synthesize the magic. The spell resolves as normal, but you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your CHA modifier (minimum of 1 HP). You can use this feature a number of times equal to your PB, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Nature’s Endurance 

11th-Level Elder Wood Feature  

Your patron has suffused your body with a portion of its ability to withstand harmful magic. You are resistant to damage from spells. 

In addition, when you fail a save against a spell, you can reroll the save and take the new result. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your PB, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Avatar of the Wood

15th-Level Elder Wood Feature 

You can channel the power of the forest to physically transform, taking on many of its aspects. Your legs, arms, and torso elongate, your body becomes covered in thick bark, and branches sprout from your head as your hair recedes. You can transform as a bonus action, and the transformation lasts 1 minute. While transformed, you gain the following benefits: 

• Your Armor Class is 16 + your DEX modifier.
• You gain tremorsense to a range of 30 feet, and your attacks can reach 5 feet farther. 
• Your hands become branch-like claws, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you attack with a claw, you use CHA instead of STR to determine the attack bonus, and the claw deals slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your CHA modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. The claws count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage. If you have the Pact of the Blade feature, your claw attack benefits from your invocations as if it was a pact weapon. 
• Your Sap Magic feature changes to Arcsynthesis: When a spell of 5th circle or lower is cast within 60 feet of you, you can use your reaction to synthesize the magic. The spell resolves as normal, but you have a 50 percent chance of regaining 1d10 hp per circle of the spell cast. 

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.