"Eldritch magic, the powers drawn from those dark beings and forces which exist between the stars. Not as pervasive as the arcane and divine magics wielded by more common spellcasters, eldritch magic always presents an aspect of otherness, a connection to a world which rarely intersects with ours and which strikes ordinary mortals as strange... and dangerous."
Unlock the secrets of the Far Realm and otherworldly magic with this over-70-page supplement for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons.
The Eldritch Expansion offers new materials for both players and Dungeon Masters interested in the strangest and most other-worldly aspects of the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Inside you'll find resources and rules for traversing the Far Realm, calling upon eldritch magics, and battling alien creatures.
Included in this supplement:
- 10 pages of lore and optional rules for the Far Realm, aberrations, and eldritch magic.
- 17 magic items, including 3 new artifacts.
- 2 new races, the Eldritch Scion and Rogue Illithid.
- The Eldritch Warden, a new class with 3 specialisation options.
- 9 new class specialisations, including new options for barbarians (the Abomination), bards (College of Unearthly Drone), clerics (Eldritch Disciple), rogues (Slayer), warlocks (The Archangel, The Genie, and the Reaper), and wizards (Eldritch Teurge, School of Sympathy).
- 24 new Eldritch Invocations
- 25 new spells, including new "channeled" spells.
- 19 new monsters, including lore and statblocks for Aspects of Elder Evil, new Beholderkin, Illithidae, and Tsochari.
This supplement includes material adapted from the 3rd edition rulebooks Complete Arcane, Elder Evils, and Lords of Madness, as well as original materials.
Any recommendations to improve the content will be gladly appreciated!
Credit to the respective artists (as specified on page 2). Additional thanks to Scott Tolksdorf for producing NaturalCrit's The Homebrewery, which was used to format this supplement.
This supplement is part of the Critical Designs project, developing high-quality homebrew content for TTRPG systems.
If you liked this content, you may also like...
The Master Mechanic's Steampunk Manual
Updates:
Update v3.5 - Erratum
- Minor corrections to cleric Eldritch Disciple domain.
Update v3.4 - Cultural Sensitivity and Critical Designs
- The term 'voodoo' has been removed where it previously occured in the document. Please see my apology below.
- This document has been brought into my wider 'Critical Designs' brand.
Author's Apology: Earlier renditions of this expansion included references to certain traditional African religions. This was done when I was younger, and less familiar with issues around cultural appropriation, and then promptly forgotten about in the years since. It was also done with the best of intentions - I even included a sidebar explicitly stating that the purpose of the relevant content was to capture a certain picture in popular culture, and was not intended to offend or parody the real world religions which that popular cultural notion was based upon. However, after an issue was raised by the DM's Guild team, I now acknowledge that, as someone with no connection to these real world cultures and religions, it was wrong of me to use terminology from those cultures to describe my own creation. As such, I have renamed the offending subclass the "School of Sympathy", as it is primarily based around the notion of sympathetic magic found in many European mystic traditions as well as the African traditions after which it was once named. I would also like to wholeheartedly apologise to anyone who was offended by my use of this terminology before.
This said, I would also like to raise a concern with how the DM's Guild team seems to have handled this issue. I was made aware of the problem in my own content via an email which simply noted the word appeared somewhere in the text, suggesting the team made no attempts to determine the nuances of any particular case. While in my case it was valid, it is difficult not to be concerned that such wholesale approaches could do more harm than good - by banning and blocking black and POC individuals who are genuinely trying to celebrate these cultures.
For this reason, I wanted to take this opportunity to point readers towards The Wagadu Chronicles [LINK], an afrofantasy PNP and online RPG supplement developed exclusively by black and POC people to celebrate African culture in all of its beauty and wonder. Please check it out and support the development if you can!
To conclude, I sincerely apologise for offence that may have been caused by my previous cultural insenstivity - I have ratified the problem as soon as I was made aware. Remember to continue to support #BlackLivesMatter and that being just 'not racist' (but not commitedly anti-racist) is no better than being racist in a systemically racist society. Be kind to each other, apologise when we make mistakes, and let's fight the good fight, together.
Update v3.2 - Erratum
- Correction of formating errors in the Eldritch Warden Harrowing Touch feature.
Update - Printer Friendly
- A smaller file size, "printer friendly" version of the document is now included.
Update v3.1 - Erratum
- Correction of formatting errors in the Spells section.
Update v3.0 - New subclasses and Aspects of Elder Evil
- Multiclass prerequisites and proficiencies for Eldritch Warden added.
- Two new class specialisations introduced: the College of Unearthly Drone for the Bard, and the School of Voodoo Sympathy for the Wizard.
- Aspect of Cthulhu, Aspect of Dendar, Aspect of Llymic, Aspect of Ghaunadar, and Aspect of Ragnorra introduced, alongside templates and statblocks for the Brood of Father Llymic and the Spawn of Ragnorra.
Update v2.0 - Clarification for Wizard
- Correction of erratum on page 19, "paladin" replaced with "warden": now "You can make a warden quickly by following these suggestions."
- Updated description of Eldritch Theurge's Eldritch Spellblastto clarify:
- Maximum level of attached spell.
- Spell slot lost in cases where eldritch blast cantrip misses.
- Differentiating between the level at which the attached spell is cast (matched to the spell slot expended) and the overall level of the combined casting; the former referring to the damage and other properties of the spell, the latter referring to interactions with Counterspell and similar magical effects.
Update v1.2 - Artwork change
- Artwork on p.20 updated due to concern over claimed "artist" having comitted plagiarism. New art by RobCV.
Update v1.1 - Clarification for Rogue
- Updated description of Slayer's Baneful Mark to clarify targetting creatures not native to the current plane on which the player is at time of use.
Update v1.0 - Clarifications and class/subclass features
- "DM's Tips" sidebars added in the Race section to clarify intended usage of Eldritch Scion's alien adaption and the Rogue Illithid's hive mind susceptibility.
- Placed a damage limit on Eldritch Warden's Harrowing Touch to reduce potential impact at higher levels.
- Updated Abomination's Eldritch Transformation to limit AC bonus.
- Updated Eldritch Disciple's Channel Divinity: Gift of the Divine Patron to limit options (bringing it more in line with other "Channel Divinity" features).
- Updated Warlock "The Genie" patron's Wish-Giver feature to clarify the limits of the ability.
- dated Eldritch Theurge. Otherworldly Endurance limitted to only provide temporary hit points at trigger. Eldritch Spellweaver brought in line with Eldritch Warden's Soulbound (provides one free use of chosen spell).
