Hello adventurers of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 1st ever episode of our dnd 5e feats series. If you remember a couple articles back i mentioned i have an announcement to make this is that announcement we’re going to be doing feats now guys…..pretty exciting!
I kind of read a couple messages indicating it guys and questions when it came to feats. So i thought this might be a great way to tackle it as well as gave me a break from looking at the spell list so there’s kind of get a little bit dry up in my head right now so this is a good way to mix it up, good way to break up the day.
So today we’re going to be talking about the aberrant dragonmark this feat is found in the wayfinder’s guide to eberron which is a great book fantastic, highly recommended if you don’t have it already. That out of the let’s take a look at its description here.
Table of Contents
Description
So the prerequisite is to have no existing dragonmark…we will be covering the full dragonmark list once we get into the races and then after that we’ll be covering the greater mark’s as well so just keep an eye out for that. So this feat reads as followed. Also check out this dragonmark races 5e.
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 Flaws table.
So if you’ve checked out the previous article there’s a lot in common with it, i mean you get the cantrip, you get the first level spell it’s sorcerer base constitution’s you ability modifier but it’s the second part that changed entirely. In the previous edition you basically sacrifice, when you’re hit died 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. Now let’s take a look at those flaws.
Aberrant Dragonmark Flaws
So they’re calculated by rolling a die eight, 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 pastor 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.
Number two it could be interesting plot point to be fair, so i really do like that. I 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, i mean it’s good so maybe but i don’t know let me know you think down beneath.
The skin around the mark is burned, 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 eaten easy around you number five, i really i 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.
It’s i don’t know 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 one i would or 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 what are the aberrant dragonmark abilities here.
Walkthrough
So plus one the CON maximum of twenty really easy to get really easy to understand. On the second part you gain one a sorcerer cantrip and first level spell. The first level spell you can use once per short or long rest. Con is your spellcasting ability modifier which is pretty great for a lot of builds needless to say.
When you cast the first level spell you can roll a hit die, even number getting you temp HP odd numbers it cause force damage to random creature within 30ft. 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. Don’t miss this do minotaurs have darkvision.
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 seperate fee so we gotta cover it in this article and let’s do that real quick here. Also check out greater aberrant dragonmark 5e.
Greater Aberrant Powers
Upon reaching 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 level. So basically they just keep reroll in the d10 every time they level until they get the target number and then they get an epic boon as a result. Also check out this Aberrant Dragonmark boon.
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. Check out this do wolves have darkvision 5e.
So it’s a 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 in the comment section. That being said, let’s getting my personal thoughts about it. Also read do tieflings have darkvision
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 into the mix and i guess to this weird point where a character wants a certain one but its 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. You can also grab this article called aberrant mind sorcerer.
Aberrant Dragonmark Spell Slots
Considering the only prerequsite for taking the feat is having no other dragonmark, it’s safe to assume it doesn’t consume a spell slot. Otherwise, non-magical classes wouldn’t be able to take it. If it consumed spell slots, it would say in the prerequisites that you need at least one level in a spellcasting class.
Nope, the Aberrant Dragonmark feat doesn’t use a spell slot. The beauty of it is that you get to cast that 1st-level spell once per rest, no slots needed. It’s like your mark’s got a bit of magic juice of its own. Just remember to take that breather afterwards to get your mojo back for the next round 🙂
Conclusion
That being said, in terms of who should use it, honestly anyone with a 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 example i think that’d be a good first level spell for them to grab.
It’s not concentration improved 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. You may also like to read this aberration 5e.
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.