Hello adventurers of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the very interesting episode of our feats series. So technically speaking this is a redo of a previous feat we’ve covered namely dnd 5e feat aberrant dragonmark this is a second version of that.
So basically what happened is wizards put it into publication under the wayfinder’s guide to eberron and there was a lot about that book in particular that they took issue with. So it led to them redrafting a couple dnd 5e feats, a couple of races things along those lines so technically it’s play tested and in doing so they re-released this feat.
You can check out the original version here still so you can check it out i much prefer that version to this vesion by the way, i kind of see what they were trying to do but this is a ridiculously complicated for a feat. So hopefully i’ll be able to kind of help you out a little bit. That being said, lets take a look at this description and try and break it down a little bit.
Table of Contents
Description
Prerequisite: No existing dragonmark. You have manifested an aberrant dragonmark. Determine its appearance and the flaw associated with it. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You learn a cantrip of your choice from the sorcerer spell list. In addition, choose a 1st-level spell from the sorcerer spell list. You learn that spell and can cast it through your mark. Once you cast it, you must finish a short or long rest before you can cast it again through the mark. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for these spells. When you cast the 1st-level spell through your mark, you can expend one of your Hit Dice and roll it.
If you roll an even number, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the number rolled. If you roll an odd number, one random creature within 30 feet of you (not including you) takes force damage equal to the number rolled. If no other creatures are in range, you take the damage. You also develop a random flaw from the Aberrant Dragonmark.
Option: Greater Aberrant Powers At the DM’s option, a character who has the Aberrant Dragonmark feat has a chance of manifesting greater power. Upon reaching 10th level, such a character has a 10 percent chance of gaining an epic boon from among the options in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. If the character fails to gain a boon, they have a 10 percent chance the next time they gain a level. Don’t miss out dnd 5e aberrant mind sorcerer guide.
If the character gains a boon, the DM chooses it or determines it randomly. The character also permanently loses one of their Hit Dice, and their hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to a roll of that die plus their Constitution modifier (minimum reduction of 1). This reduction can’t be reversed by any means. You can also read our article on dnd 5e aberrant spirit.
So if you’ve checked out the previous article there’s a lot in common with it, you get the cantrip, you get the first level spell it’s sorcerer base, constitutions your ability modifier but it’s the second part that changed entirely in the previous edition you basically sacrifice when you’re hit die and you were able to up cast the first level spell, i thought that made a lot of sense, i don’t quite 100% understand why they decided to go with this road but whatever all i can really do is report on it. Let’s take a look at those flaws. Also read dnd 5e aberrant mind spell selection.
Aberrant Dragonmark Flaws:
So they are calculated by rolling a d8 that’s kind of a random way of choosing one. There’s really nothing to stop you from picking one or coming up with one on your own. If you decide to go with that route though i’ve just run a past your dm to be honest i would run this whole feat by your DM just because there’s a lot of really weird implications for it. So without further ado let’s actually go through these flaws.
D8 Flaw
1 Your mark is a source of constant physical pain.
2 Your mark whispers to you. Its meaning can be unclear.
3 When you’re stressed, the mark hisses audibly.
4 The skin around the mark is burned, scaly, or withered.
5 Animals are uneasy around you.
6 You have a mood swing any time you use your mark.
7 Your looks change slightly whenever you use the mark.
8 You have horrific nightmares after you use your mark.
So i actually find a lot of these to be a pretty extreme depending on who your DM is. So for example your mark is a source of constant pain. I would argue that when it flares up you’re gonna be rolling disadvantage on a couple checks potentially. Also check out d and d 5e personality traits.
Number two it could be interesting plot point to be fair. So i really do like that, looking at number three i don’t like this one because it’s just i don’t like it when these feats negatively impact the real world. You’re already really using a pretty important resource on getting this feat in the first place. So having a hissing mark for a feat that in my opinion isn’t quite the best you could select. You can also check out greater dragonmark 5e.
I mean it’s good and so maybe but i don’t know let me know you think down beneath. The skin around the mark is burn scaly or withered, i don’t consider that one to be too bad just because yeah you know you can cover it up pretty easily. The one versus animals are uneasy around you number five…i really don’t like that because it implies you’d have disadvantage of animal handling checks.
I know it doesn’t say that expressly but i can make an argument for it pretty easily. Those are probably the worst ones with the exception of number eight having horrific nightmares. I would make an argument that a cruel DM would impose a level of exhaustion whenever that happened. So it’s really worth having like conversation with them in advance, in terms of the ones i would try to avoid number one, number three, number five and number eight would probably be the worst ones.
I don’t know once again let me know what you think down beneath i’m always curious to hear exactly what you guys think. So let’s actually take a look at a quick walkthrough here just to try to simplify this to the best of our abilities here. Also check out 5e when can i use a bonus action.
Walkthrough
So plus one to CON maximum of twenty really easy to get, really easy to understand. On the second part you gain one sorcerer cantrip and first level spell. The first level spell you can use once per short or long rest. Con is your spell casting ability modifier which is pretty great for a lot of builds needless to say. Don’t miss our article on strongest creatures in d&d.
When you cast the first level spell, you can roll a hit die. Even numbers getting you temp HP, odd numbers it cause force damage to a random creature within 30 feet of you or you if no one else is around. Which is really an interesting caveat. I’m sure there’s a way to kind of break this, maybe something involving absorb elements might be kind of cool to play around with but we can talk about that more a little bit later on.
In any case that’s kind of the three main components of this spell, i’m not going to include the random traits in the walkthrough just because we’ve already addressed it first and foremost in detail and also it doesn’t expressly say it affects mechanics at all so we’re just gonna kind of brush it off. Also click on how intelligent are familiars 5e.
Now if you thought we were done you would be wrong, there’s another section that kind of outlines how the greater aberrant power or the greater version of this mark would operate. It doesn’t specify it’s own separate feat so we gotta cover it in this article and let’s do that real quick here. Do not miss out our article on dragonmark races 5e.
Greater Aberrant Power
Upon reaching the 10th level, such a character has a 10% chance of gaining an epic boon. If the creature fails to gain an epic boon they have a 10% chance the next time they gain a level. So basically they just keep reroll in that d-10 everytime they level until they get the target number and then they get an epic boon as a result.
If the character gains a boon, the DM chooses it or determines it randomnly. The character also permanently loses one of their hit dice and their hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to a roll of that die plus their CON modifier (minimum reduction of 1). This reduction can’t be reversed by any means.
So it’s a pretty pretty interesting way to look at it. Right once again i don’t really know what to think or feel about this spell i’ve never play tested it personally i’ve never been part of any games there’s been tested. So let me know what you think down beneath. That being said, let’s getting my personal thoughts about it.
Thoughts
I am very divided, i think it’s a cool concept but by that same token i feel like they tried too hard to over balance it and it led to a lot of weird mechanics that i know for a fact a lot of people are gonna misinterpret. By default i don’t think i’d allow this in my game. Just because rolling that hit die is figuring out what’s going on it seems like a lot of things to keep track of and then you incorporate epic boons 5e into the mix and i guess to this weird point where a character wants a certain one but it’s probably gonna be the most broken.
So i don’t know it’s all really weird for me personally i would need a strong reason to allow this in my game. It might be a cool option to give people as like a quest reward for example but by default i don’t really like it. That being said, in terms of who should use it, honestly anyone with high constitution modifier. I think ideally the barbarian could really gain a lot from this.
Especially if they grab something like armor of agathys for exmple i think that’d be a good first level spell for them to grab, it’s not concentration improves their survivability a little bit deals a little bit of damage and just looks cool. But i don’t know maybe chaos bolt as well possibly kind of depends what you’re playing but i really do like the idea of having a tankier class taking a little bit of magic just to really diversify their arsenal.
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any ideas, thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, stories, uses please put it down beneath in the comment section i really do appreciate it. Thank you so much everyone i really do appreciate it and as always happy adventuring.