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Subclass Warlock Undead Patron
The Undead Patron is a Warlock subclass built around a pact with an ancient undead entity — a lich, a vampire, or another being that has transcended mortality. These patrons share their profane knowledge of death, fear, and necrotic power with those who serve their will among the living.
From Level 3, the Undead Patron Warlock projects Frightened conditions, ignores necrotic Resistance, and at Level 10 becomes immune to necrotic damage entirely.
This is a full progression subclass with features at Levels 3, 6, and 10, and an expanding spell list across all odd levels through Level 9.
| LEVEL | FEATURE |
|---|---|
| 3 | Form of Dread, Undead Spells |
| 5 | Undead Spells (expanded) |
| 6 | Grave Touched |
| 7 | Undead Spells (expanded) |
| 9 | Undead Spells (expanded) |
| 10 | Necrotic Husk |
Form of Dread grants two distinct benefits that work together:
Fearless Form — You have full Immunity to the Frightened condition. Whatever your patron might project outward, it cannot touch you inward.
Frightful Avatar — Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can force it to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spell Save DC.
- Failure: The target has the Frightened condition until the end of your next turn.
Form of Dread grants immunity to the same condition it inflicts — Frightened cannot affect the Undead Patron Warlock.
Your pact grants you a permanently expanded spell list that grows as you level. These spells are always prepared and do not count against your Prepared Spells limit.
| WARLOCK LEVEL | SPELLS ADDED |
|---|---|
| 3 | Bane, Blindness/Deafness, Phantasmal Force, Ray of Sickness |
| 5 | Speak with Dead, Summon Undead |
| 7 | Greater Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer |
| 9 | Danse Macabre, Cloudkill |
10 spells total added to your list across the full progression — a toolkit built for fear, death, and control.
Grave Touched is a three-part passive that fundamentally changes how your necrotic damage works:
Arcane Necrosis — Necrotic damage from your attacks, Warlock spells, and Warlock features ignores Resistance to Necrotic damage. Creatures that would normally take half damage from necrotic sources take full damage from you.
Dreaded Necrosis — When you deal Necrotic damage with a spell, you cannot roll a 1 on any damage die. The floor on your necrotic output is raised permanently.
Undead Endurance — You don't need to sleep, and magic cannot put you to sleep. Immunity to the Sleep condition and any magical sleep effect.
At Level 6, necrotic Resistance no longer reduces your damage, minimum necrotic dice rolls are raised, and you become immune to magical sleep effects.
Necrotic Resilience — You have full Immunity to Necrotic damage.
This is the natural endpoint of the progression:
- Level 3: You inflict fear and project your patron's dread
- Level 6: Your necrotic damage bypasses resistance and gets a minimum floor
- Level 10: You become immune to the very damage type you specialize in
The Undead Patron is a Charisma-based control and necrotic striker that becomes increasingly resilient to its own damage type while making enemies more vulnerable to it.
Your combat identity:
- Apply Frightened every turn through Form of Dread — Frightened creatures have Disadvantage on attacks and can't willingly move toward you
- Blast with necrotic spells knowing Resistance does nothing from Level 6 onward
- Your necrotic damage dice never land on 1 — consistent, reliable output
- Sleep and Frightened cannot affect you — two of the most common debuff vectors in the game simply don't work on you
- At Level 10, you absorb necrotic damage entirely — enemy Warlocks, necromancers, and undead deal zero damage of their primary type to you